Union ministers, BJP leaders participate in 'Run for Unity' in Delhi

Several Union ministers and thousands of people participated in the 'Run for Unity' organised by the Delhi BJP at several places here to celebrate the 143rd birth anniversary of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

According to the BJP, the 'Rashtriya Ekta Daud' was organised in Pitampura, Shakti Nagar, Bhajan Pura, Gokalpur, Mayur Vihar, Anand Vihar, Dwarka, Vasant Kunj and Sangam Vihar among other areas.

Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and several party leaders and workers participated in the event.

Taking part in the run at Gokalpur in northeast Delhi alongside Tiwari, Prasad said, "Sardar Patel was a great leader who united the princely states."

"It is (Patel's birth anniversary) a national festival which is being celebrated across the country," he said, alleging that it took 41 years to honour the first home minister of India with Bharat Ratna as the Congress was concerned with only one family.

 

Sardar Patel was bestowed the country's highest civilian award posthumously in 1991, 41 years after his death in 1950.

"We do not oppose Nehru. But we protest the idea that everything was done by the Nehru family and nothing by Sardar Patel," Prasad said.

Tiwari said people would not have been able to move freely across the country had Sardar Patel not united the princely states.

Vardhan and Goel joined the participants of the 'Rashtriya Ekta Daud' in Keshavpuram and Chandni Chowk respectively.

Later, Goel tweeted about his participation in the 'Run for Unity'.

BJP general secretary (organisation) Ramlal took part in the run at Mehrauli, while his colleague Bhupendra Yadav attended it in New Delhi district.

Meanwhile, two groups of BJP workers clashed with each other during the 'Run for Unity' organised in south Delhi.

Local BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri said he was not present at the spot when the incident occurred.

On the birth anniversary of Patel on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 'Statue of Unity' in Gujarat's Narmada district.

The 182-metre-high structure of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is touted the world's tallest. It is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty in the US and is built on Sadhu Bet, an islet near the Sardar Sarovar Dam.