Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. (Express photo by Javed Raja) Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. (Express photo by Javed Raja)

Union Minister of Law and Justice and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s pain regarding Kashmir had been eliminated through “surgery” by “another great son of Gujarat” —- Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing a gathering of people from 36 institutes of Ahmedabad at Dinesh Hall here, Prasad said the decision to scrap special status of Jammu and Kashmir was a “confidential project”, and that he got to know about it just two days earlier.

“Today there is satisfaction about one fact. The pain of Sardar Patel regarding Kashmir has been cured through surgery by another great son of Gujarat, Narendra Modi,” Prasad said, speaking at the event called ‘Rashtriya Ekta Abhiyaan’ organised by the Gujarat BJP.

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Congratulating Modi on the moves regarding J&K, Prasad also gave credit to Home Minister Amit Shah for deftly “piloting the project”.

“There are a number of holes in the Government of India. And this matter could have been leaked from anywhere. And once it was leaked, mischief was bound to be there,” he said.

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“I had been associated with the subject… I joined just two days prior. Amitbhai called me and said ‘Law Minister, read this file’. After reading the file, I was startled. Because, ever since I joined the RSS in Class III, I had just heard the story of ‘Jahan huye balidan Mukherjee, woh Kashmir hamara hain. And now, as Law Minister, I was to sign. I got emotional. He (Shah) said, ‘Law Minister, is your pen working correctly? Take it out and sign it, we want to make history’.”

Earlier in the day, Prasad addressed a press conference at Ahmedabad Management Association wherein he highlighted the achievements of the Modi-led government in the first 100 days of its second term. Here too, Prasad mentioned the abrogation of special status as the biggest achievement of the government. He said the decision was appreciated by a number of countries, and that even China had not openly objected to it. The decision is in the interest of Jammu and Kashmir and India, he said.

Praising Patel for unifying India, Prasad said that Patel was “right” and Jawaharlal Nehru was “wrong” in their approach towards Kashmir.

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Prasad also spoke on other achievements of the Modi government, including the law banning instant triple talaq.

On the issue of employment, Prasad said that since September 2017, 2.75 crore persons have been added to the Employees’ Provident Fund, which means that as many people have got jobs. He said that in 2014, there were only two mobile manufacturing companies in India, but now, there are 268 such companies.

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