New Delhi: Eleven people from Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s home district of Kheda in Gujarat have written a letter, signed in blood, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore the name of Motera stadium in Ahmedabad after Sardar Patel, according to Vibes of India.
The stadium was renamed as the Narendra Modi Stadium replacing Patel’s name on February 24, 2021.
A new agitation, under the banner of Sardar Samman Sankalp, has been in the making for some time in the Kheda district, whose sole purpose is to ensure that the stadium is named after Patel.
“Sardar Patel had integrated 562 princely states with the Indian Union. And renaming a stadium after Sardar Patel to Narendra Modi stadium is Sardar’s insult,” Vibes of India quoted from the letter.
The letter was signed in blood by 11 people, namely, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Atul Patel, Bhagwat Parmar, Babubhai Solanki, Mangalbhai Makwana, Natubhai Chauhan, Ghanshyam Makwana, Amanullah Khan V Pathan, Bharat Parmar, Mustufa Malek, Kalpesh Barot and Taufiqbhai.
“The letter was only a symbolic protest. We will resort to a huge agitation if the stadium is not renamed after Sardar Vallbhbhai Patel,” Atul Patel, one of the signatories, said.
Last year in February, the world’s largest cricket stadium in Motera, until then named after Patel, was rechristened as the Narendra Modi Stadium, after refurbishment. Patel’s name was shifted to a new sports enclave in Ahmedabad.
President Ramnath Kovind, who inaugurated the stadium, had said, “This stadium was conceptualised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat. He was president of the Gujarat Cricket Association at that time.”
Union home minister, who was also present at the inauguration event, had said, “We have decided to name it after the country’s prime minister. It was Modiji’s dream project.”