BJP, RSS must not appropriate Sardar Patel's legacy: Manish Tewari

Carrying forward the fight over Sardar Patel's legacy, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) of appropriating the legacy of India's first Home Minister.

"On 9/11/1948, Sardar Patel wrote a letter to Golwalkarji. And, in that letter, he said that the communal poison which had been spread by the RSS was responsible for the sacrifice of Gandhiji. As a student of political history, it has always intrigued me that the RSS, BJP has been attempting unsuccessfully to appropriate the legacy of Sardar Patel," Tewari told media here.

"I wanted to ask the BJP or their newly-anointed pretender that do they endorse, or agree with the views of Sardar Patel with regard to the RSS. If not, as the chief minister of Gujarat and possibly as the 'Swayamsevak' within history bears testimony to the fact that those who do not have a history of their own, try to appropriate the history of others," he added.

Tewari said the Indian freedom struggle was conceived, conceptualized and led by the Indian National Congress.

"The unification of India was also the result of the efforts of the Indian National Congress. So, therefore, it would be advisable before you try and appropriate legacy to at least study it carefully," he added.

Tewari's statement came hours before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi are to pay tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "Iron Man of India", by unveiling a statue of him on an island in the River Narmada in the state.

It is expected that both may deliver politically-charged messages, given that elections are being held in several states, and general elections are due in May 2014.

This morning, Tewari tweeted about Sardar Patel's criticism of M S Golwalkar, an icon of the BJP's mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, in connection with the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

This comes after another row over Modi's purported remark in a newspaper interview that India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru never attended the funeral of Sardar Patel in 1950.

The battle for Sardar Patel's legacy has been fought even within the BJP, with Modi aggressively fashioning himself as a second 'lauh purush (iron man)', an image that BJP veteran L K Advani had crafted for himself till he was sidelined by his own party.

Modi has invited leaders from various parties, including the Congress on Thursday, for the launch of a project to build a Sardar Patel statue 'taller than the Statue of Liberty'. He calls it an attempt to "restore the dignity" of a leader who was denied it by the Congress.