New Delhi: Activist for Dalit rights and writer, Kancha Ilaiah, has said that if Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was made the first Prime Minister, India would have gone on the lines of Pakistan and democracy would have collapsed.
Speaking at the Times LitFest on Sunday, he also said that Patel would not have allowed Dr BR Ambedkar to write the Constitution because the former was a strong believer of Manusmriti.
"He (Patel) wouldn't have allowed Ambedkar to write the Constitution. He was close to Hindu Mahasabha... Believers of Manusmriti would've written it. We would've gone on the lines of Pakistan, our democracy would've collapsed. But for the first 17 years of democracy, India would've been Pakistan," he was quoted as saying in a TOI report.
Ilaiah further argued why Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked Sardar Patel in his election rallies last year.
"Patel figured in 2014 elections. Narendra Modi had said India's journey would've been different if Patel had been the first PM," Ilaiah, who had in past attacked the Prime Minister on inequality, said.
Modi had invoked Sardar Patel in his election rallies to call for unity and harmony, saying that India's first Home Minister had played a stellar role in unifying the country and this was a primary condition for progress and development.
