On a momentous occasion, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi shared the stage at Ahmedabad on Tuesday evening at a function marking the inauguration of a museum dedicated to Sardar Vallabbhai Patel.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said that Sardar Patel had the credentials to lead India post Independence and that he, rather than Jawaharlal Nehru, should have become the country's first Prime Minister.
Speaking at length on Patel's ideology and policies, he said India would have had a very different fate if he had become the first PM.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who took to the stage after Modi, emphatically stated that the first Home Minister of India and Nehru had a relationship based on respect and trust. He quoted the iconic leader from Gujarat, saying Patel himself had said it was his good fortune to have advised Nehru on matters of administration and this would not have been possible if there was no trust between the two men.
Emphasising that Sardar Patel was in pricinple a secular man, he said at this juncture, it was paramount for every leader and social worker to remind themselves the high ideals of secularism, tolerance and compassion for every citizen on which the modern nation of India was founded.
Modi and Manmohan appeared briefly together, exchanging words and laughs, as the two posed side by side for photographers.
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