Cong did not honour great men like Sardar Patel, Netaji: Das

Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister slammed the Congress on Sunday for discriminating against great personalities like Sardar Patel and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by not honouring them with what they deserved.

The party, that had governed the country for the longest period, had also not given Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru their due, Das said at a programme here.

“These great personalities did not get respect which they deserved,” Das said while addressing the last day of the four-day Lok Manthan programme here in the presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Equating B R Ambedkar with Martin Luther King, Das said Ambedkar had given the Constitution to the country but he was not considered for Bharat Ratna.

“It was the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which honoured him with Bharat Ratna, which should have been conferred upon him much earlier,” he added. The chief minister said instead of keeping alive sentiments of nationalism, a handful of people were trying to weaken them.

Left-leaning historians are projecting a wrong image of the country and in such times, the thoughts churned out at the Lok Manthan programme will give a new direction to cultural nationalism, Das said.

“Several religions and cultures are there in the country, so we believe in sarva dharma sadbhav (all religions equal). For us, all religions are the same and we believe in all the religions,” he said.

Das said Indian tradition is to respect all the religions and the countrys culture is to take everyone alongside. “Some forces are there to break the society. By defeating such forces, we have to take society to the pinnacle,” the chief minister said.

A large number of tribals had been converted through allurement, Das said. The government has since made a law, making forced conversion a punishable offence, he said.