Congress seeks apology from BJP over corruption in the name of making Sardar Patel's statue

The Congress has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat has indulged in corruption in the work of creating tableaux for the program to be held on the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and has assigned the responsibility to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brother without following the rules, for which the BJP government should apologize.

Congress Rajya Sabha member Shaktisinh Gohil said at a press conference at the party headquarters on Friday that the BJP and its people are themselves corrupt and raise the slogan "neither will I take nor will I let anyone take", but in Gujarat, corruption is happening in the name of the same Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was the first president of the Gujarat Congress and remained the state Congress president for 25 years.

Mr. Gohil said that the BJP is indulging in corruption in the name of the same Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Everyone knows that the Government of India has decided to organize an Ekta Parade program in Gujarat on the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. Tableaux have to be created for the event to be held on Sardar Patel's birthday, and for this, the state government issued a circular in which the names of five companies were mentioned.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a circular on October 31, mentioned the names of the companies selected for the work of creating tableaux for the Ekta Parade, including M/s Live Pixel Technology, M/s Sudheshwar Kanoga, M/s Vaishali Kanoga, M/s Sushant Khedekar, and M/s Smart Graph Art Advertising.

The Congress leader said that no tenders were invited for this. The government, while giving the reason for not inviting tenders, said that there is no time, so tenders were not invited in a hurry. The five names mentioned for creating tableaux are all pawns of the same chess. He also said that it is Sardar Patel's birthday, everyone knows about it, yet tenders were not invited on time. The amazing thing is that the government issued another circular on October 29, stating that among the five firms mentioned, Mr. Pinkaj Modi will give the final shape to the tableaux.

Introducing Mr. Pinkaj Modi, he said that he is the brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is being given Rs 10,000 per day and other facilities for the work of the tableaux. It's all right that the government has appointed him for this work, but Mr. Modi is not an expert in creating tableaux. He said that Pinkaj Modi started his job as a Class-3 employee in 1981 and became a Class-1 officer, while no other employee with him got promoted to Class-1.

The Congress leader said that corruption has taken place in the work of creating Sardar Patel's tableaux by violating the rule-based process, and this is an insult to Sardar Patel, for which the BJP should apologize to the country.