On the 143rd birth anniversary of freedom fighter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Congress party said that Patel, the first Home Minister of independent India, strongly opposed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In its post on the micro-blogging site, attaching an old newspaper clipping of 1948, the party wrote, "The RSS and its ideology has created a danger for the identity of the country."

Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Ironic that a statue of Sardar Patel is being inaugurated, but every institution he helped build is being smashed. The systematic destruction of India's institutions is nothing short of treason."

Gandhi was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiling the 182-metre-tall Statue of Unity in Gujarat as a tribute to the freedom fighter.

The Congress president said, "Sardar Patel was a patriot, who fought for an independent, united and secular India. A man with a steely will, tempered by compassion, he was a Congressman to the core, who had no tolerance for bigotry or communalism. On his birth anniversary, I salute this great son of India."

After inaugurating the colossal statue, towering over the river Narmada in Gujarat, Prime Minister tore into the Opposition, saying, "I am amazed when some people of our own country dare to see this initiative from a political view and criticise us as if we have committed a huge crime. Is remembering the country's great personalities a crime?"

Sardar Patel was also India's first deputy prime minister and is known as the "Iron Man of India" for uniting the feuding states after independence.

While Gandhi and his colleagues say that Sardar Patel was a leader of the Congress party, the Bharatiya Janata Party maintains that he belonged to everybody.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)