Mahatma mission: Meghnad to fast for London statue funds

Economist Lord Meghnad Desai, who is in the forefront of collecting £1 million needed for a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi to be installed in Parliament Square here, will be adopting the Gandhian way of going on a fast to raise awareness about the statue.

The target to collect the required funds is expected to be reached by the end of January next year. Desai, who set up a trust to establish and maintain the statue, told HT that he will go on the fast in Parliament Square next week to highlight the important project.

“Many meetings and events are being held, we hope to reach the funds target by the end of January. The sculptor (Philip Jackson) is on schedule, the bronze statue has gone to the foundry for casting. The Westminster City Council has approved the project,” he said.

On the possibility of PM Narendra Modi unveiling the statue, Desai said it was a matter between the prime ministers of Britain and India. “I am just gathering money for the statue”, he said. Plans to instal Gandhi’s statue were announced in July during the visit to India by Chancellor

LONDON:

George Osborne and the former Foreign secretary William Hague. An advisory panel led by Culture secretay Sajid Javid is overseeing the project. Desai said: “The ambition is for the monument to be in place early next year – providing a focal point for commemoration next summer of the 100th anniversary of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa to start the struggle for self-rule, as well as the passing of 70 years since his death in 2018, and the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2019”. Desai said: “I have often walked through Parliament Square looking at the statues of politicians and statesmen from around the world. Lincoln, Mandela, Lloyd George, Churchill and Smuts are all there. I often wondered, why not Gandhi?”