INDIA IS SET TO HAVE THE LARGEST STATUE IN THE WORLD. WAS THIS EXPENDITURE JUSTIFIED?

  26-Sep-2018 07:57:22

Sardar Vallabhai Patel BJP Modi


Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set aside $33 million of government money to help fund the construction of the world’s tallest statue, a project close to his heart. The Prime Minister launched the project to build the bronze-and-iron statue named as “The Statue of Unity”- which aims to be twice the height of the Statue of Liberty at 182 metres - half a year before he was elected as the Prime Minister of India to honour one of the country’s most important founding fathers- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who is also known as the Iron man of India.

The tribute was widely seen as a bid to break the grip over India’s post-independence history of the Nehru-Gandhi ruling dynasty that Modi sought to unseat in the election. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the deputy of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as well as his home minister.

The Statue of Unity will be located facing the Narmada Dam, 3.2 km away on the river island called Sadhu Bet near Vadodara in Gujarat. This statue will occupy over 20,000 square meters of area, and will be surrounded by a 12 square km artificial lake. It will be the world's tallest statue when completed with a planned height of 182 metres (597 ft). The Statue of Unity is being designed as a naturalistic and historically accurate representation of Sardar Patel, wearing characteristic garments, in a walking stance.

A Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust was set up, and soon after Modi became PM in 2014, the Gujarat government handed the construction contract to a multi-firm consortium. L&T was picked as the executing firm, for its lowest bid of 2,989 crore (US$420 million) for the design, construction and maintenance of the Statue of Unity, while the consortium also includes Michael Graves Architecture & Design and Turner Construction, which previously developed the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The construction was started on 31 October 2014.

But is this expenditure justified? Do we really need such a large scale investment in something as building a statue while there are more important issues in the country that need to be addressed and need such a large scale funding? Some users of social media noted that the money allocated was the same as the amount allocated for women’s safety, in a country plagued by violence against women, and twice that to promote education for girls.

A prominent number of local people have opposed land acquisition for tourism infrastructure development around the statue. They also proved that Sadhu Bet was originally called Varata Bawa Tekri, named after a local deity, and so it was a site of religious importance. People of Kevadia, Kothi, Waghodia, Limbdi, Navagam and Gora villages opposed the construction of the statue demanding back land rights of formerly acquired 927 acres of land for dam and the formation of Garudeshwar taluka. Environmental activists wrote a letter to central government that this project started implementation without environmental clearance from the ministry.

Others said the statue, which is to be built on a river island in Gujarat, would be a major global tourist attraction, which justified the outlay.

“Sardar Patel stands as the symbol of the unity of the country,”

Arun Jaitley said in the speech to parliament. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) credits Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with using strong-arm tactics against the hundreds of princes who ruled parts of India at the time of independence to forge a united republic. Many in Gujarat feel his legacy has been neglected by the once mighty Congress party. Nehru and his descendants ruled India for most of the period since independence from the British in 1947, and numerous development projects are named after Nehru, his daughter Indira and her son Rajiv Gandhi. Modi seems adamant on creating a nationalist symbol in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel that strays away from the legacy of a dynasty that he blames for many of India’s ills, including poverty and corruption.

WRITTEN BY:

NAISARGI KOTHARI