NEW DELHI: After BJP 's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi called for Sardar Patel 's "secularism", party patriarch LK Advani has quoted from a book that said Jawaharlal Nehru had called his home minister a "total communalist" when he suggested that army be sent to take over Hyderabad after Independence.Advani in his blog on Tuesday repeated extracts from MKK Nair's book, 'The Story of an Era Told without Ill Will', on "sharp exchanges" between Nehru and Patel in a Cabinet meeting before "police action" against Hyderabad. Advani's comments come at a time when the BJP and Congress have crossed swords over Patel's legacy. He had cited similar paragraphs from the book in his blog last year, quoting a news report.Advani said the Cabinet meeting that witnessed a sharp exchange between Nehru and Patel on the Hyderabad issue took place shortly before the so-called 'police action' actually took place in 1948. This was also a phase when Lord Mountbatten had left for London, and Rajaji had become Governor-General.The Nizam, who wanted to accede to Pakistan, had sent an emissary to the neighbouring country and transferred a huge sum of money to the government there. His officials were reportedly committing atrocities on locals. "At a Cabinet meeting, Patel had described these things and demanded that army be sent to end the terror-regime in Hyderabad. Nehru who usually spoke calmly, peacefully and with international etiquette, spoke losing his composure, 'You are a total communalist. I will never accept your recommendation'...," Nair wrote. The book further said that Patel remained unperturbed but left the room with his papers.At a recent function to inaugurate Patel's statue, Modi had said India needed Patel's secularism and not "votebank secularism". Advani too had praised Patel. The BJP has been alleging that Congress had lost its claim to Patel's legacy as it had failed to pay adequate tributes to him.In his earlier blog, Advani had quoted Nair saying that Nehru's "personal hatred for Sardar Patel came out in the open on December 15, 1950, the day the Sardar breathed his last in Bombay. Immediately after he got the news about Sardar Patel's death, Nehru sent two notes to the Ministry of States. The notes reached VP Menon, the then secretary to the ministry. In one of the notes, Nehru had asked Menon to send the official Cadillac car used by Sardar Patel to the former's office. The second note was shocking. Nehru wanted government secretaries desirous of attending Sardar Patel's last rites to do so at their own personal expenses," Advani had written.