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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday (October 31, 2025) that Sardar Patel wanted to join all of Kashmir to India like other princely states, but the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru prevented it from happening.
Addressing a gathering after the National Unity Day parade near the Statue of Unity in Gujarat’s Ekta Nagar, Modi said incidents of infiltration are disrupting India’s demographic balance, and a decisive battle has been decided against it.
He said, “Sardar Patel believed that one should not waste time in writing history, but one should work hard to create history.” He said that after independence, Sardar Patel accomplished the seemingly impossible task of merging more than 550 princely states into the Indian Union.
The Prime Minister said that the policies and decisions taken by Sardar Patel created a new history. “The idea of ’One India, Great India’ was paramount to him,” Modi said. Attacking the Congress, Modi said that Kashmir and the country have paid a heavy price for the party’s mistakes in handling the issue.
He said, “Sardar Patel wanted to unify all Kashmir like other princely states, but Nehru ji prevented his wish from being fulfilled. Kashmir was divided, given a separate constitution and a separate flag and the country had to suffer the consequences of this mistake of Congress for decades.”
Modi said that the sovereignty of the country was paramount for Sardar Patel, but after his death, the governments did not show the same seriousness towards the sovereignty of the country. “The mistakes made in Kashmir, the problems in the Northeast and the spread of Naxalism and Maoism across the country, all these were serious challenges to the country’s sovereignty,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that instead of following the policies of Sardar Patel, the then governments adopted a spineless attitude. He said, “Due to the weak policies of the Congress, a part of Kashmir came under the illegal occupation of Pakistan, which then encouraged state-sponsored terrorism. Kashmir and the country paid a heavy price, yet the Congress always succumbed to terrorism. It forgot Sardar Patel’s vision, but we did not.”
The Prime Minister said that by breaking the shackles of Article 370, Kashmir has fully joined the mainstream. Today, Pakistan and terrorists also know the real strength of India. In ‘Operation Sindoor’, the world saw that if anyone casts an evil eye on India, we will enter their homes and destroy them. This is Sardar Patel’s India.
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