Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel and Netaji were hanged by the British : Prakash Javadkar

“The fight for independence that began in 1857 ended 90 years later when we threw the British out. We salute freedom fighters…. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Pandit (Jawahar Lal Nehru), Bhagat Singh and Rajguru who were hanged," media reports quoted him as saying when he was  addressing a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara.

Javadkar described all of them as 'Shaheed' (martyr).

The Minister's faux pass lay in the fact that Nehru, India's first Prime Minister died of natural causes in 1964, while Patel, India’s first Home Minister, too died a natural death in 1950.

Bose’s death is still a matter of debate as he is said to have  disappeared after a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945.

Bhagat Singh and Rajguru were indeed executed by the British in 1931.

In what may go down in future as hilarious political anecdotes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also mixed up history not in distant past, when he referred to the ancient king Chandragupta of Maurya dynasty as a monarch of the Gupta dynasty.

He also said Takshashila, the famous ancient seat of learning, was in Bihar, while in reality the place is in Pakistan's Rawalpindi district under  Punjab province.