Prime Minister Narendra Modi led India's National Unity Day celebrations at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat on Saturday, paying floral tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Statue of Unity on the 151st birth anniversary of the country's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister.

October 31 is observed every year as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, or National Unity Day, in honour of Patel, who is remembered as the architect of India's political integration after Independence. The main national programme was held at Ekta Nagar, in Gujarat's Narmada district, near the 182-metre Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue, which was dedicated to the nation on Patel's birth anniversary in 2018.

Parade, pledge and tributes

The celebrations featured the Ekta Diwas parade, with marching contingents from state police forces, Central Armed Police Forces and other central police organisations, along with the National Cadet Corps and a marching band. Mr. Modi administered the national unity pledge during the programme, and President Droupadi Murmu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah also paid tributes to Patel on the occasion.

Patel was born on October 31, 1875, in Nadiad, Gujarat. As India's first Home Minister, he oversaw the merger of more than 560 princely states into the Indian Union — a task widely credited with giving the newly independent country its territorial shape. The Government of India began observing his birth anniversary as National Unity Day in 2014.

Projects worth Rs 426.71 crore for Ekta Nagar

Alongside the celebrations, Mr. Modi inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 31 tourism and infrastructure projects worth a combined Rs 426.71 crore at Ekta Nagar. Of these, 23 projects worth Rs 307.83 crore were formally inaugurated, including an IRCTC hotel, the Ekta Cruise, a Rain Forest attraction, travelators and a sewage treatment plant. The Prime Minister also visited the Rain Forest and the Vaman Vriksha Vatika during the day.

The projects are intended to strengthen Ekta Nagar, built around the Statue of Unity and the Sardar Sarovar Dam, as a tourism destination. Unity Day programmes were also held across the country, including a unity march in Bhubaneswar organised by Odisha's sports and youth services department.

For the government, the day carried a dual message: a tribute to Patel's legacy of integration, and a showcase of the town that has grown up around his memorial as a symbol of that unity.