Pune: Hitting back at Congress which has accused the BJP government of forgetting the death anniversary of former PM Indira Gandhi, Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had always acknowledged the good work done by his predecessors unlike Congress.
Alleging that Congress did not remember leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose and Lal Bahadur Shastri despite being in power for a long time, Javadekar said the party knew only "Gandhi family".
"Congress was at the helm of power for several years, but did not remember Patel, Bose and Shastri and laud their contributions. The reason is that for Congress, they have only one family.
"Whenever I go to various parts of the country, I see institutes and projects being named after only one family..that is Gandhi family. There are over 842 institutes, entities, projects and schemes which are named after one family," Javadekar said while addressing party workers here.
"Why there are no projects, schemes and institutes named after Patel, Bose or Bhagat Singh? Why are no memorials built in their memory?" he asked.
"But we will build the memorial of Patel in Gujarat and continue to laud the efforts of all these great leaders," he said.
Javadekar paid tributes to Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister of India, on his 141st birth anniversary.
Later, talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event to observe Patel's birth anniversary as 'Ekta Diwas', the Union HRD minister said, "Today, I heard Congress is criticising government for forgetting Indira Gandhi, but in reality the entire nation is paying tributes to her.
"Modiji has been lauding the efforts and good work of all the past PMs and Congress has never taken such a stance.
Our government lauds the efforts and contribution of all leaders who had fought for freedom. We do not have any selective amnesia," he said.
Javadekar said history would have been different if the "great unifier" of the country (Vallabhbhai Patel) had taken up the responsibility of Kashmir, which was then rested with Jawaharlal Nehru.
"Sardar Patel was a great unifier of the country and because of his efforts, we are living in a united country.
People of India are now questioning Congress for not remembering leaders like Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Lal Bahadur Shastri," he remarked.
