'Sardar Patel wanted army to take back PoK but...': PM Modi on impact of Partition on Pahalgam attack

PM Modi launched the Urban Development Year 2025 and lay the foundation stone for several development projects in Gandhinagar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1947 wanted army to take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, famously known as Sardar Patel, was the first Deputy Prime Minister and home minister of India.

According to PM Modi, Patel believed military action shouldn’t cease until PoK was reclaimed by India. However, PM Modi said that Sardar Patel’s “counsel was ultimately disregarded".

PM Modi launched the Urban Development Year 2025 and lay the foundation stone for several development projects in Gandhinagar.

“In 1947, when Maa Bharti was partitioned, the chains should have been cut at that time," he said.

Lamenting that the country was divided into three parts, and “on that very night, the first terrorist attack took place in Kashmir", the Prime Minister accused Pakistan of seizing “a part of Maa Bharti… using terrorists in the name of Mujahideen".

After the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, India on May 7 conducted precision strikes on at least nine terror camps in Pakistan in what is now known as Operation Sindoor.

India and Pakistan indulged in four days of military action post Operation Sindoor. The two nations agreed on an understanding to halt military action on May 10.

"In Pahalgam too, a perverted form of this was seen. We kept tolerating for 75 years. And every time a war broke out, all three times, India's military might defeated Pakistan. Pakistan understood that it could not win a war with India, so it started a proxy war. Terrorists with military training are sent to India. Unarmed innocents, someone is travelling on a bus, someone is in a hotel, someone is a tourist, wherever they got an opportunity, they kept killing, and we kept tolerating. Should we tolerate anymore?"the PM said.

The PM said India, India follows the tradition of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" -- the world is one family. "We want our neighbours to live in peace and we want them to let us live in peace. But when we are repeatedly challenged, this is also a country of the brave," he said.