Work for country's unity, Congress urges Modi

The Congress on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to desist from making utterances igniting religious passions and instead work for the unity of the people and the country.

Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said the prime minister has the habit of distorting history through his speeches but now he, along with BJP president Amit Shah, were speaking the language of polarization.

Modi and Shah are "igniting religious passions through their utterances", Sharma said, reacting to Modi flagging of the "Run for Unity" on the birth anniversary of the country's first deputy prime minister and home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Recalling that it was Patel who worked for bringing together various states after the independence of the country, Sharma said it was he who had banned the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Singh (RSS) after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathu Ram Godse.

Sharma said Patel had banned RSS after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination it should also be mentioned in the inscription plate of the huge statue of the Patel being installed in Gujarat.

Stating that the prime minister takes great pleasure in making public old archives, Sharma asked him to also make public the correspondence the first home minister had with the then RSS chief M S Golwalkar and the first president of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Syama Prasad Mookerjee.