India unveils ‘biggest’ statue
INDIA on Wednesday inaugurated the world’s biggest statue with pomp, fireworks and tight securit y amid an outcr y among loca l groups over the cost of the 182-metre high reproduction of an Indian independence hero.
Activ ists said about a dozen of t heir leaders had been detained before Prime Minister Narendra Modi officia lly opened the tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, wit h an air force jet flyover, helicopters showering flowers on the statue and fireworks i n the green, orange and white nationa l colours.
“Today is a day t hat will be remembered i n the histor y of India,” said Modi who hailed Sardar Patel’s “strategic t hinking” in bringing toget her t he disparate countr y after i ndependence i n 1947 and the Statue of Unit y as “a sy mbol of our engineering and technica l prowess.”
But around the statue in a remote corner of Gujarat state, more than 5,000 police guarded the huge site where construction work has taken nearly four years to complete the megaproject. Hundreds of Chinese have been among the 3,500 workers.
Anand Mazgaonkar, a community group leader in Narmada district, said plain clothes police took away 12 people late Tuesday to t he loca l police headquarters.
Police denied they had made any detentions. But authorities took no chances in case community groups staged protests to demand compensation for land taken to erect the statue of Unity, which cost 29.9 billion rupees ($400 million).
“Police patrolling has been intensified in the wake of protests by t he loca l t r iba l community and leaders. Drones and helicopters will be keeping watch on t he entire area,” said Narmada police inspector genera l Ab- hay Chudasama ahead of the ceremony.
The chiefs of 22 local villages signed a letter calling on Modi to stay away from the inauguration.
Posters of Modi with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani were torn down or had their faces blackened at the weekend. Police kept watch on posters put in place of the torn ones.
Local legislator and community group leader Chotu Vasava said: “Tribal groups have been exploited by different governments, the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is repeating it again.”
“I am not against Sardar, but what is the use of the statue if the people on the land have to suffer and are moved from their homes?”
‘Nationalist giant’
More than 80 per cent of the local population are from tribal groups with special protected status.
The Gujarat government said the 185 families moved to make way for the statue had been compensated and given 475ha of new land.
Modi, whose nationalist government has made the statue one of its flagship projects, paid tribute while the air force jets roared overhead and dance troupes performed.
Sardar Patel’s name had been largely overshadowed by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated Indian politics since 1947. But Modi-inspired nationalists have sought to put their hero back in the forefront.
The statue is more than t wice t he size of New York’s Statue of Libert y and a lso dwarfs the 128-metre high Spring Temple Buddha in China, t he world’s next biggest statue.
It is made up of nearly 100,000 tonnes of concrete and steel.
Online booking to visit the Statue of Unity has opened with a 350 rupee ($4.75) admission fee for the 153-metre high observation deck.
Indian authorities hope the statue will attract 15,000 visitors a day to the remote corner of Gujarat, which is about 100km from the nearest city of Vadodora.
India is also working on a giant statue of 17th-century warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, which should dominate the Mumbai shoreline from 2021. The current design would make it 212 metres high.