Cash spent on this statue could have helped kids
Friends, expats, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to praise Patel, not to dig his past.
Patel was a great leader, honourable and faithful;
The good that men do lives after them; So let it be with Patel. The noble Modi Hath told you Patel was a patriot...
If I were to write a eulogy for Patel, I would have scribbled in this Shakespearean vein. But this is not a sepulchral moment. Neither am I a Marc Antony. This is the dedication of the world’s tallest statue of one of the tallest personalities India has seen, to the nation by the Indian prime minister. For Narendra Modi, the unveiling of the 182-metre Statue of Unity at Kevadiya in Gujarat’s Narmada district, is a dream come true. A 30-billion rupee dream that he had sculpted in 2010 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.
The name Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a mouthful for me as a child. Bassy and voluminous. He was a leader my mother always talked about when she cooked, cleaned and washed; about how Patel’s dedication to work was an example to follow. Patel was handed a note informing him of his wife’s demise after a major surgery for cancer when the barrister was cross-examining a witness in court, my mother told me. But he reportedly read the note, pocketed it, and continued his cross-examination and won the case.
Later I happened to study Patel was the person who foresaw pragmatism in India’s partition plan and convinced agonised leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru that a two-state solution on religious lines was the best way forward to avoid a civil war and bloodshed. With over 565 princely states free to choose between independence and accession to either dominion, it was this indomitable man who integrated them with the Union of India and prevented the Balkanisation of the subcontinent.
Patel’s tireless efforts to lobby the rulers to dissolve their states without receiving any compensation demands recognition. It’s an undebatable argument, but I’m not sure about wasting 30 billion rupees on a statue when India’s rankings on various huger charts are at the rock bottom.
India is home to the largest undernourished population in the world: 14.9 per cent of our population is undernourished, 195.9 million go hungry every day, 21 per cent of children under five years are underweight, 38.4 per cent of children under five are stunted and one in four children is malnourished.
India’s agricultural crisis has reached an alarming state: 33 million farmers have committed suicide in 22 years. That’s over 12,000 farmers a year, or 33 every day. When farm debt has soared to 12.6 lakh crores (as of 2016) and 52 per cent of households are steeped in debt, can we afford the luxury of multi-billion statues across the country? The leaders who we intend to honour would have been happier, had we spent the money to feed the millions who go to bed hungry, or
educate 35 million children aged 6-14 years who don’t have access to school.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in 2014 riding a wave of support from young job-seekers and farmers who wanted their debts waived, procurement prices increased and the middleman system abolished. None of this has materialised. Modi promised 10 million jobs every year, but the rate of joblessness for people aged between 20 and 24 over the May-August period was 27.3 per cent, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. In the farming sector, debts have increased, and the government’s free-market policy has resulted in more layers of middlemen than ever before.
The 30 billion rupees price tag of the Patel statue could have done wonders. There could have been more schools and colleges; more roads and bridges; more facilities for farmers and labourers; and more research and development; and more clinics and hospitals. According to the finance head of a Dubai-based chain which also runs hospitals in India, the statue cost could have built six 500-bed hospitals. It could have built hundreds of village schools and half-a-dozen mediumsized IITs worth five billion rupees each. According to Indiaspend, the money could have realised five IIM campuses, six Mars projects and three moon missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The statue construction has affected 75,000 tribals across 72 villages in Narmada district. Resentment among farmers and locals are high as they say compensation was inadequate and commitments like land and jobs have not been fulfilled.
Statues have always been part of India’s political fabric. Periodic governments at the centre and in states have indulged in the game of statues. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati commissioned larger-than-life statues dedicated to her mentor Kanshi Ram and herself across the state. According to a government report, 59 billion rupees was wasted, while her rival Akhilesh Yadav alleges a 400 billion scam behind the construction of these structures. Statues shouldn’t be used as a decoy to gloss over government failures.
The Patel statue towering over the world would be the Modi government’s penance on a pedestal unless tangible progress is shown on the ground before the next elections. Otherwise, an Indian cartoon that features the statue of Patel sighing “Good days aren’t visible even from this height” would set the tone for the 2019 campaign.
Statues shouldn’t be used as a decoy to gloss over government failures… The leaders who we intend to honour would have been happier, had we spent the money to feed the millions who go to bed hungry, or educate 35 million children aged 6-14 years who don’t have access to school