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(THE GIST OF PIB) National Unity Day

[November-2022]

National Unity Day or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas is celebrated on October 31, every year since 2014 to mark the birth anniversary of the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

This year marks the 147th birth anniversary of freedom fighter Vallabhbhai Patel.
Sardar Vallabhbhai merged 565 princely states to make India one nation. This is the reason why National Unity Day is celebrated on his birth anniversary.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was appointed as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950.
He was so influenced by Gandhiji's ideas that in the year 1920 in the non-cooperation movement, he adopted indigenous Khadi items and started boycotting foreign clothes.
Patel led the Satyagraha movement in Nagpur in 1923 against the British law of banning the hoisting of the Indian Flag.
He was the second candidate for the post of President after Mahatma Gandhi at the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress in 1929.
In the year 1950, the health of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel started deteriorating and on 15 December 1950, he said goodbye to the world.
Ahmedabad's airport has also been named Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
In 2013, Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Sardar Patel's memorial in the Narmada district of Gujarat. It was named the Statue of Unity.