World’s tallest, Statue of Unity, gets a grand opening

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the world’s tallest statue dedicated to 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 statue 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 in 1947. “Had Sardar Saheb not vowed (to unite India), then to see lions of Gir, to worship at the Somnath Temple and to visit Charminar, 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 to Kohima and from Kargil to Kanyakumari, it is because of Sardar Saheb,” Modi said, adding he was surprised over the criticism he has faced over the statue that has cost ₹2,989 crore. “We are criticised for praising sons of the soil. We are made to feel as if we have committed a major crime.”

Modi said Patel wanted India to be “empowered, robust, sensitive, alert and inclusive”. Modi said his government was taking “all the steps to fulfill his dreams”. He listed the schemes and projects to highlight how they were in line with Patel’s vision. “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.”

The work to provide road and digital connectivity to every village is on a fast track. “We are providing gas connection as well as toilets to every household”.

He referred to 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, is 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. Modi, who laid the statue’s foundation stone in 2013, added his sentiments were same like “crores of Indians”.

Thirty-seven members of Patel’s family, some of whom had flown from the US, attended the event. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The statue will remain a source of inspiration for generations to come,” said Patel’s grandnephew, Dhirubhai Patel, who lives in Vadodara.

Urmilaben, Patel’s grandniece, said Modi has kept the independence hero’s legacy alive by having the statue built.

The statue’s inauguration is seen as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) efforts to honour the leaders it accuses the Congress, which has ruled the country for 49 years, of ignoring.

In his response to the inauguration, Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, accused 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. 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”.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati asked the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to apologise for criticising 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.