I resolved the Kashmir issue because I walked in the footsteps of Sardar Patel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his address at Anand in Gujarat ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
He took an oblique dig at India’s first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, blaming him for complicating Kashmir’s accession to India. He didn’t, however, name him.
“Sardar saheb persuaded all the princely states to merge with India. But another person handled this one issue of Kashmir,” Modi said.
“As I am following the footsteps of Sardar saheb, I have values of the land of Sardar and that was the reason I resolved the problem of Kashmir and paid true tributes to Sardar Patel,” Modi added.
The BJP has always blamed Nehru for taking the Kashmir issue to the United Nations which made the region contested in the world’s eyes.
The PM further targeted the previous Congress governments in Gujarat, saying while they had constructed dams, no canal network was created to carry water.
“Did they make dams for darshan (show)?” the PM asked.
He credited himself for building the canal network and completing it in 20 years.
