Narendra Modi, Manmohan Singh share dais in Ahmedabad: If Sardar Patel was first PM, India would have been different, says NaMo

Manmohan Singh in Ahmedabad with Narendra Modi.

6.30 pm: Manmohan Singh addresses the gathering

Manmohan Singh speaking at the event.

--We are here to honour a proud son of India and Gujarat. He was among India's biggest leaders.

--Sardar Patel always dreamt of a united India with a secular mindset. He has inspired us with his works.

--Sardar Patel had unique administrative skills, which is why he was called 'Loh Purush' (Iron Man). He was secular, said people of all religions are his friends. Patel was instrumental in building India as we know it today.

--I'm honoured to be a part of the Congress of which Sardar Patel was a lifetime member.

-And he worked hard for the Indian National Congress. He was also the chair of the Congress's Karachi session. Patel was a luminary of that generation, part of the group of tall leaders such as Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. They led us during the freedom movement and after. 

6.15 pm: Modi addressing the gathering-

Narenda Modi speaking at the event.

--Mr Prime Minister, in your tenure Gujarat Government has received several awards from your government and international bodies in our limited period of rule. We want to thank you for this.

--We have got awards from various ministries. We have got over 90 such awards and I thank you for that. Not only this, international bodies including UN have given awards to Gujarat. We have got over 200 awards. This gift will go a long way in tourism sphere. This is for inspiration and administration.

--For the unity of this nation the work Sardar Patel did is a big inspiration. Be it Maoism, terrorism these are challenges to our unity. From here I tell those who took these arms, the misguided youth that your path will not succeed. Bomb and gun will not do good for nation. It is need of the hour that we leave the path of bomb and gun and we join the mainstream and come on path of development.

--Violence neither helps society nor helps nation nor does it give anything to future.

--I am sharing a small anecdote. In 1919 Sardar Sahib was a counsellor in AMC. That time he got a proposal for women reservation. See his vision and see what all he could have given us. Even see urban town planning. He did lots as Mayor here.

--There will always be this pain in every Indian. If Sardar Sahab was PM  the country's destiny and direction would have been different. People still wish he was the country's first PM.

5.45 pm: Manmohan to Congress workers before the Sardar Patel event: You should be fully prepared to fight the 2014 elections and ensure that UPA returns to power.

File Photo: Sardar Patel.

Manmohan and Modi to share dais 

With four days to go before Diwali, expect some political fireworks at an event in Ahmedabad wherePrime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi share the stage on Tuesday.

Singh and Modi will be sharing the stage at a function to inaugurate a museum dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's life here. Two days later, on October 31, Modi would be laying the foundation stone of a gigantic statue of the first Home Minister of the country near Sardar Sarovar Dam.

As the electoral pitch in the run-up to the 2014 General Elections has risen in the recent months, Modi has constantly attacked the PM for his "weak and feeble" response to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif's attack on Singh where he allegedly  compared Singh's concerns about India-Pak border tension to the lamentations of a "dehati aurat". Modi also castigated the PM for being silent on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi publicly attacking him over the ordinance defending convicted MPs/MLAs. Modi called the assault on the PM's dignity as "chirharan".

Manmohan Singh with Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad at the inauguration of the Sardar Patel museum.

Singh has also broken his famous silence and has been vocal against Modi in the recent months. While returning from his US trip, he told reporters early this month: "I sincerely hope all secular forces will combine to face the onslaught of people like Mr Narendra Modi. You will see that will happen when people realize what they are up for."

The museum to be inaugurated on October 29 has been built by the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society.

Union Minister Dinsha Patel, who is the chairman of the society had met Modi and invited him to the function.

The invitation card of the function says that the PM will be the chief guest and the Gujarat Chief Minister the special guest.

The BJP, and especially Modi have often accused Congress of ignoring Patel's legacy and promoting Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

Anand Sharma declines Modi's invitation

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today declined Narendra Modi's invitation for the event, suggesting that the Gujarat Chief Minister's motives were not sincere and the name of the great leader was being misused for partisan political agenda.

Sharma accused Modi of attempting to "brazenly usurp" the rich legacy of Sardar Vallab Bhai Patel "whose approach and beliefs militate against all that is personified by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, whose nominee you are." In a strongly-worded letter, Sharma wrote to Modi that he was "unable to accept" his invitation for the ground-breaking ceremony of the 'Statue of Unity' in Ahmedabad on Thursday. "It is surely the prerogative of the State of Gujarat to construct a befitting memorial for Sardar Vallabhbhai, a hero of India's freedom strugle.

"However, the initiators of such a grand project must be guided by sincere motives and genuinely subscribe to the noble values of Sardar and to the lofty ideals for which he dedicated his life," the Congress leader wrote to BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate. He underlined that Patel's memory should not be "coloured by partisian political agenda as unfortunately is happening in the present case". Referring to Modi's rally in Patna on Sunday, Sharma accused him of "misusing" the name of Sardar for "political propaganda" with a "deliberate untruth" and said it was disrespect to the memory of the first Home Minister.

"It is rather odd that you have attempted to brazenly usurp the rich legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, whose approach and beliefs militate against all that is personified by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, whose nominee you are," Sharma wrote. He further wrote that the rich legacy of Sardar Patel cannot be "appropriated" for political expediency or electoral gains.