New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to the country's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his death anniversary today, saying every Indian is indebted to him for his monumental service to the nation. Patel, who was also the first deputy prime minister of India, died on December 15, 1950, three years after Independence, at the age of 75. 

"We remember the great Sardar Patel on his Punya Tithi. Every Indian is indebted to Sardar Patel for his monumental service to our nation," Modi tweeted. Known as the "Iron Man" of India, Patel was instrumental in uniting the country through a merger of small princely states.