Jairam Ramesh hands Rajnath original Maniben Patel diary entries, rebuts NehruBabri claim
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday handed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh a copy of Vallabhbhai Patels daughter Maniben Patels original diary entries in Gujarati, asserting that they contain no reference to Singhs claim that Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to construct the Babri Masjid using public funds. Ramesh met Singh outside Parliaments Makar Dwar and presented him with the Gujarati pages alongside a Hindi translation. When Ramesh urged him to read the entries, Singh responded that he did not know Gujarati, adding that the BJP already had an English version. The Congress has been challenging Singhs remarks, made last week during a public address in Gujarats Vadodara district, claiming Nehru had proposed state funding for the mosque but was stopped by Sardar Patel. The party has accused the defence minister of circulating falsehoods and urged him to apologise. Ramesh said the diary entries published in the 2025 book Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno by C.A. R.S. Patel (Aaresh) do not support Singhs statement. There is a huge difference between the original diary entry and what Rajnath Singh and his fellow distorians are propagating, he wrote on X while sharing images of the pages. The BJP, however, continues to stand by Singh. Its national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi cited another publication, Inside Story of Sardar Patel, Diary of Maniben Patel, claiming it notes that Nehru raised the Babri Masjid issue and that Patel declined government expenditure for constructing a mosque. The Congress has dismissed these assertions as fabricated and accused the BJP of relying on WhatsApp University narratives to target Nehru and distort historical records.
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