Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 7: The Congress on Saturday demanded an apology from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh over his claim that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to use government funds to “build” the Babri Masjid and that the proposal was opposed by then Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh, sharing screenshots of pages from a book on X, said the minister had misrepresented facts. Ramesh cited the Gujarati diary entry of Sardar Patel’s daughter, Maniben, from the book Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno by CA R S Patel ‘Aaresh’, published by the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society in 2025.

“There is a huge difference between what is contained in the original diary entry and what Rajnath Singh ji and his fellow ‘distorians’ are propagating,” Ramesh wrote, accusing the minister of spreading “falsehoods” to “improve his relationship” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On December 2, speaking in Sadhli village of Vadodara, Singh had said: “When Pandit Nehru raised the issue of spending money from the government treasury on the Babri Masjid, it was Sardar Patel, son of a Gujarati mother, who opposed it.”

The BJP had earlier cited the book attributed to Patel’s daughter to back Singh’s comments, adding that Nehru had also written about feeling “repelled” by certain temples in South India despite their architectural beauty.