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New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS) On the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has flagged the two deadly attacks on India’s Iron Man in 1939 and attacked the Congress for keeping the truth hidden for 86 years.
Revelations about the deadly attack on Sardar Patel came to light as historian Rizwan Qadri on Friday spoke of ‘revealing hidden history’ and released a documentary panel shedding light on the double fatal attempts on Sardar Patel’s life which remained hidden for decades.
Rizwan Qadri, who is writing a documentary on the subject, said, “An important historical revelation about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is now being screened at the Statue of Unity. A new documentary panel lifts the curtain on the two deadly attacks on him, revealing a conspiracy that remained hidden for 86 years.”
“The documentary panel exposes the alleged political conspiracy hatched by the native princely states and the Muslim League behind the attempts on Sardar Patel’s life,” he said.
The BJP immediately attacked the revelations, targeting the Congress party and asking why it kept this fact hidden for 86 years.
Blaming the Muslim League, the BJP said the organization carried out two fatal attacks on Sardar Patel – the first in Vadodara (January) and the second in Bhavnagar (May 1939), but the then Congress governments suppressed the truth for their convenience.
Attacking the then governments for concealing the conspiracy to assassinate Sardar Patel, the BJP said the real ‘Iron Men’ were strong and committed to the unity of India, undeterred by attempts and conspiracies on their lives.
“History should record the truth, not Congress’s edited version,” the BJP said in a post on Twitter. The series of posts by the party highlight a conspiracy against the Iron Man.
The fatal attacks on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took place in 1939, when the country was witnessing a turning point in its freedom struggle. This was the time when Sardar Patel was uniting the princely states through his Prajamandal movement. The Muslim League resorted to violence in the name of religion, leading to deadly attacks on them and their supporters, while the Congress chose to remain silent and began to ‘wipe out’ the conspiracy in the post-independence era.
The first fatal attempt took place on January 20, 1939, when his procession was passing through Mandvi (Vadodara).
“Muslim League-backed goons shouted ‘Sardar go back!’ And pelted stones at his car. The Prajamandal office was set on fire – a state sponsored attempt to silence Patel’s growing influence. Congress? Silence,” BJP said.
The next attack took place in Bhavnagar on May 14, 1939, when Patel arrived to lead the fifth Praja Parishad. A mob allegedly affiliated with the Muslim League, supported by local princely states, attacked their peaceful procession from the local Nagina Mosque.
“It was a pre-planned conspiracy. Patriots Bachchu Veerji and Jadhavji Modi were martyred while protecting Sardar. Dozens of people were injured in the violent attack. Despite this, Patel addressed the gathering that evening with calm resolve and tribute to the martyrs. Even after so much violence, he never left the path of unity,” the BJP said in another post.
The series of threads stated that two accused were given death sentence for the assassination attempt on Patel’s life, but what was even more disappointing was that ‘Congress historians’ erased the case from textbooks and archives.
The BJP said, “This is the real history of 1939 – where the Iron Man stood firm while political opportunists appeased the divisive forces. No one dared to mention the role of the Muslim League or the cowardly silence of the Congress.”
–IANS
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