PM inaugurates world’s tallest statue
TRIBUTE TO PATEL Narendra Modi calls the 182m Statue of Unity an expression of a new India’s selfconfidence KEVADIYA(GUJARAT):Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the world’s tallest statue depicting India’s first home minister, Vallabhbhai Patel, on his 143rd birth anniversary at Kevadiya in Gujarat’s Narmada district. The 182-metre steel and bronze Statue of Unity is nearly twice the height of New York’s Statue of Liberty.
Modi called the statute not only a tribute to Patel but also “an expression of a new India’s new self-confidence”. He recalled the role Patel played in “uniting the country” after independence. “Had Sardar Saheb (Patel) not vowed (to unite India), then to see lions of the Gir (National Park), to worship at the Somnath Temple and to visit Charminar (monument) of Hyderabad, we would have needed a visa,’’ Modi said.
He was referring to landmarks in Gujarat’s Junagarh and Hyderabad, which were among the 562 nominally-independent princely states across India under the British Patel played a key role in integrating with the Indian union after independence.
“If we are able to move freely from Kutch (Gujarat) to Kohima (Nagaland) and from Kargil (Jammu and Kashmir) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), it is because of Sardar Saheb,” Modi said with reference to Patel’s role in unifying India.
Modi said he was surprised over the criticism he has faced over the statue that has cost ₹2,989 crore. He said some people see it through the political lens. “We are criticised from praising great people like Sardar Patel and other sons of the soil. We are made to feel as if we have committed a major crime.”
Modi referred to Patel’s vision and said the independence hero wanted India to be “empowered, robust, sensitive, alert and inclusive”. Modi said his government was taking “all the steps to fulfill his (Patel)’s dreams”. “We are working on the Bhagirath project to provide concrete houses to the homeless. We have provided electricity to 18,000 villages, which were deprived of power supply for all these years after Independence.” Modi said the work to provide road and digital connectivity to every village is on a fast track. “We are providing a gas connection as well as toilets to every household,” Modi said.
He referred his resolve for “Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat (One India, Superior India)” and called maintaining the country’s unity a “responsibility he (Patel) had passed on to us.” “It is our responsibility to answer, with full force, all the efforts made to divide the country...”
Modi said the statue reflects India’s engineering and technical capabilities. “The structure is a reminder to those questioning India’s existence…. This nation was eternal, is eternal and will remain eternal.”He said he thought of building the statue when he was the Gujarat chief minister as he wanted the person, who contributed immensely to make the country one, to get the respect he deserved. PM, who laid the statue’s foundation stone in 2013, added his sentiments were same like “crores of Indians”.
As many as 37 members of Patel’s family, some of whom had flown from the US, attended the inauguration. “This is a once-ina-lifetime moment. We all have come from the US, Mumbai, Vadodara, and Vallabh Vidhyanagar. The statue will remain a source of inspiration for generations to come,” said Vallabhbhai Patel’s grandnephew, Dhirubhai Patel, who lives in Vadodara.
Urmilaben Patel, Vallabhbhai Patel’s grandniece, said Modi has kept the independence hero’s legacy alive by having the statue built. “It is sad that some people still criticize the Prime Minister.”
Dhirubhai Patel recalled how Vallabhbhai Patel and his immediate family avoided nepotism. “When I had just completed engineering, I went to meet Maniben (Vallabhbhai Patel’s daughter) to ask for a job. She told me, ‘like you, many other youths want jobs too. You have to wait and find one for yourself’.”
The statue’s inauguration is seen as part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) efforts to honour the leaders it accuses the Congress, which has ruled the country for 49 years, of deliberately ignoring.
In his response to the inauguration, Congress president Rahul Gandhi underlined Patel was a Congressman while accusing the government of destroying the institutions Patel helped build. “Ironic that a statue of Sardar Patel is being inaugurated, but every institution he helped build is being smashed,” he tweeted. “The systematic destruction of India’s institutions is nothing short of treason. Gandhi called Patel a patriot, who fought for an independent, united and secular India. “A man with a steely will, tempered by compassion, he was a Congressman to the core, who had no tolerance for bigotry or communalism. On his birth anniversary, I salute this great son of India.”
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati asked the BJP and its ideological parent, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to apology for criticizing her for building statues of Dalit leaders when she was in power in Uttar Pradesh. “All those in the BJP, the RSS and company need to apologise, especially to the people of the Bahujan Samaj, for terming the statues the then BSP government installed to honour icons like Baba Saheb Ambedkar and others as wasteful expenditure,” she said.