NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated an imposing 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Congress President Rahul Gandhi hit out at the ruling BJP saying it "smashed" every institution that the country's first home minister had built. Attacking Modi over the event, Rahul said: "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."

He said Patel was a Congressman to the core, who had no tolerance for bigotry or communalism. "Sardar Patel was a patriot, who fought for an independent, united & 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," Rahul said.

Modi, while inaugurating the memorial in Gujarat's Kevadiya, said the Statue of Unity will serve as a reminder about Sardar Patel's courage to thwart conspiracy to disintegrate India. The prime minister used the occasion to slam those criticising the decision to build the world's tallest monument, asking if he had committed any crime by constructing such memorials for national heroes like Patel.

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The giant monument, named as the 'Statue of Unity' and built on an islet Sadhu Bet near Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat's Narmada district, is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty in the US and taller than the 153-metre Spring Temple Buddha in China.

Patel, was born to Ladba and Jhaverbhai Patel in Gujarat's Nadiad on October 31, 1875. He was the first Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Minister of the country. Patel is credited with merging 550 princely states into the Union of India. He had used force to annex princely states of Junagadh ruled by Nawab and Hyderabad ruled by nizam, both of whom had wished not to merge their states with the India union. He is also popularly known as the Iron Man of India.