Construction on world's tallest statue to begin in India
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AHMEDABAD: Construction was set to begin in India on Thursday for the world's tallest statue, which will stand twice the size of the Statue of Liberty and be made out of melted-down metal and farming equipment.
The tribute to Sadar Patel, the first home minister of independent India who was nicknamed “Iron Man”, is set to rise 182 metres from a rocky river island in western Gujarat state.
Once completed it will be the world's biggest, more than four times higher than the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
Opposition leader Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was to lay the foundation stone on Thursday, Patel's birthday.
He has called on farmers to donate a piece of iron for the “Statue of Unity” which will stand atop a huge stone plinth.
“I want iron pieces from your villages,” Modi said in June as he launched the project at an agricultural summit. “But we do not want any piece of iron, we want pieces of iron from tools which a farmer has used in farming.”
A collection drive by state officials covering nearly 700,000 villages across the country will begin after Modi lays the foundation stone in Kevadia, about 170 kilometres from Gujarat's biggest city Ahmedabad.
The total cost of the project is estimated at 25 billion rupees ($300 million) and will be funded with public funds and private donations, state officials say.
The collected metal will be melted down and used in the statue, which is being built by Turner Construction, the company behind the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The memorial has strong political undertones as it honours an independence hero who spent his life in the Congress party, Modi's main rival in national elections due by May next year.
In what is already a highly personal campaign, Modi suggested earlier this week that Patel, who is from Gujarat, would have made a better leader than India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
This was a provocative dig at India's modern-day Gandhi political dynasty, led by Congress chief Sonia and her son Rahul, who are descended through Nehru.
The family has ruled for most of India's post-independence history.
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On DawnNews
Comments (60) Closed
Oct 31, 2013 03:03pm
What a massive waste of money. We dont see other developed or developing nations except China going on such ego trips do we? What a waste....
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Oct 31, 2013 03:10pm
Nothing much will be added to Mr Patel political height and his deeds for India with this act which seems more a political stunt by Mr Modi. This money should be spent on poor people like bridge etc and name after him.
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Oct 31, 2013 05:14pm
"Statue of Unity"? How ironic considering Patel was among the men who could not accomodate the Muslim League's concerns and dismissed the Cabinet Mission Plan to forever divide the people of South Asia.
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Oct 31, 2013 05:22pm
I thought we all condemned the Mughals for making such useless things. Where is the sense in this?
My old University's toilets and science labs are in a mess, it would have benefited to have upgraded them using part of this budget. Wake up
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Oct 31, 2013 05:42pm
Bravo India for immortalising a communal fascist
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Oct 31, 2013 06:36pm
india it is :)
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Oct 31, 2013 06:40pm
A great tribute to a great leader.
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Oct 31, 2013 06:43pm
Well its good news, 2 tallest things are in Asia now. Keep it up India .
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Oct 31, 2013 06:55pm
It's fitting that Modi would want to build this statue. Patel was the radical Hindu nationalist largely responsible for the break up of India at partition because of his hawkish views towards Muslims.
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Oct 31, 2013 08:07pm
Thanks Dawn for reports on Sardar Patel statue.
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Oct 31, 2013 08:22pm
Narendra Modi is the right man to lay the foundation of this statue. The rumor has it that the material used for the foundation came from the debris of Babri Masjid.
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Oct 31, 2013 08:35pm
Corruption,lack of governance,lack political will power "wastes" more of India's resources. Erecting Sardar's statue should be seen as symbolism of hope for belegured people of India who have been systematically fooled since independence. I am not one of those who agree with politics of Modi. But on this "yes"
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Oct 31, 2013 09:58pm
Instead of spending money on feeding terrorist this is a good cause...he is a symbol of Unity.
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Oct 31, 2013 10:05pm
@Anupam:
in present crucial & corrupt times in india, construction of such useless statues is befooling people & nothing else. Majority of poor people do not have 2 waqt ki roti. Hell with these corrupt politicians. Lalu is in jail for 5 years but where is that money he digested years ago.
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Oct 31, 2013 10:38pm
Political stunt! C'mon Narendra bhai, itni marketing ki zaroorat nahin hai.
And as MMS has said, granted that Congress party was different in those days but Sardar Patel was a Congress party member.
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Oct 31, 2013 11:47pm
@Joel_Indian:
I know your Pakistani
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Oct 31, 2013 11:40pm
@Anupam:
I know you are from pakistan using Indian name
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Nov 01, 2013 12:08am
His head will be a good target practice for birds especially high flying migratory birds. Can they use the money to build some additional solar panels for the state?
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Nov 01, 2013 12:52am
@Shah:
How could a communal party could be accommodated into the national mainstream of a modern secular nation ? How could Jinnah not able find a secular or inclusive name like people's league or awami league for his party ?
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Nov 01, 2013 01:22am
I thought it was statue of Mr.Gandhi.
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Nov 01, 2013 01:27am
Bravo. And how many hungry kids it is going to feed ? All of them ?
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Nov 01, 2013 04:19am
At the time of Independence in 1947, there were four biggest leaders in India. Three were Gujaratis and one from UP. The Gujaratis were Ganhiji, Jinnah and Patel. The UP guy was Nehru. Of the four, the most smart man with commonsense was Sardar Patel in whose memory the Satue of Unity is being built. Sardar galvanized by integrating over 600 princely states into India. Jinnah had tried very hard to break up India into pieces. It was Sardar Patel who united India. It is in his memory that the Statue of Unity is being built.
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Nov 01, 2013 06:02am
@Shah:
That's why the Muslim population in a Patel's India has grown from 40 to 180 million while Hindus, and other non-Muslims, in Pakistan have been wiped out in Jinnah's Pakistan. You need any other evidence of who can accommodate others and who not ?????
Leave aside non-Muslims, you could not accommodate fellow Muslims of erstwhile Eastern Pakistan what can one expect from you.
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Nov 01, 2013 06:35am
foolish people of India....
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Nov 01, 2013 07:07am
Any one citing the project as waste or calling Sardar patel as communal needs education on both ,
The project has a museum,an agriculture research centre..In future it would be a tourism magnet and more importantly a landmark for Gujarat.
Vision or Shortsight comes from human eyes and it depends upon whose eyes they are.Sardar was visionary so is the project
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Nov 01, 2013 07:40am
@Shah:
"the Muslim league" wow what a very secular and inclusive sounding name for a party. No wonder Mr. Patel kicked you out.
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Nov 01, 2013 07:58am
@Anupam:
You do not know how much in travel revenue this can generate.
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Nov 01, 2013 07:54am
I am glad!! It's not a money waste to all thos who seem to be thinking so! This can generate much revenue in tourism. Imagine how much Kutub Minar and Statue of Liberty does, This would be so much bigger.
And by that logic why do we build multiplexes, stadiums or grounds, develop beaches etc. etc. Think with a non socialist brain. This is a good idea. And what PR for India in the world. I won't regret that.
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Nov 01, 2013 07:59am
What a man wouldnt do to satisfy his complex of inferiority.
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Nov 01, 2013 08:23am
@Jawad :He was not communal at all, if you have any respect for truth then read history (not the one which is pakistani version but the true one-written by various scholars ). However-I doubt the you will ever do that .
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Nov 01, 2013 08:20am
@Joel_Indiamr @joel why u make ur home with 40 inches led and air condtiner and paints just think as without patel the geography of india might b not same as they know ur such a anti country mindset and say joel india huh shame on u
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Nov 01, 2013 09:31am
@Anupam:Use your own universities money.
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Nov 01, 2013 09:47am
I wonder if the people will actually fall for such antics?
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Nov 01, 2013 11:11am
TRIBUTE TO GREAT LEADER
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Nov 01, 2013 12:38pm
25 billion rupees for a `statue ?Who next ?Mahatma Gandhi? Nehru?Indira Gandhi ?Wake up,people of India.Some of your decision makers have gone coo coo !
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Nov 01, 2013 12:51pm
Gandi deserves to have such remarkable statue!
Gandi's character was way taller then Sardar Patel. :)
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Nov 01, 2013 12:48pm
Stll awaiting response to my query whether muslim league's Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar slapped Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
Please donot be reticent. Let the truth come out for he sake of history and good order.
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Nov 01, 2013 02:43pm
It will attract revenue through Foreign tourists.
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Nov 01, 2013 02:47pm
Waste of money and nothing else.....
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Nov 01, 2013 02:54pm
@Jawad :
He was never a communal fascist. He unified India, else Pakistanis would have had problems in accessing the territories surrounded by India. He understood the same and unified India through Iron hands.
He was the true IRON MAN.
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Nov 01, 2013 03:07pm
**strong text** Mr Modi is one of gratest leader in the world, he will become PM in next election and he will put India a world leader.
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Nov 01, 2013 03:09pm
@Jawad :
pl dont say modi is communal , he is better than any indian and pakistani leaders at present
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Nov 01, 2013 04:12pm
Naming it 'statue of unity' is absolutely justified as he was the person who united all the princely state of India to form unified India. I totally agree that its a total waste of money considering the condition of poverty statistics in the country but no disrespect towards this great man. If not for him, there would have been hundreds of small and poor countries facing innumerable political problems where stands today the unified, peaceful, secular & powerful INDIA
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Nov 01, 2013 08:38pm
$300 Million for a statue but not $10 to open a library or a university.
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Nov 01, 2013 10:15pm
I don't know the utility of such projects. i feel that such grand projects bring the people together. Its good that Modi has not made this his governments project alone. he is involving people in here especially farmers it a good idea.
I wish $300 million could have been spent of building a good teaching hospital. It would have made sense.
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Nov 01, 2013 10:44pm
Nation of fools. Don't have food to eat and making these useless statues.
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Nov 01, 2013 11:19pm
@Jawad :
My friend....have you forgotten that your own country is built on the basis of a particular religion?
I am amazed as well as happy to see you are hating communalism. It seems you are one of few pakistani who oppose your forefather's idea of 2 nation theory.
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Nov 02, 2013 12:34am
Great job done by modi.
for information to everyone here statue will have a park,research center museum,institutions and other.
one more point 50 crore congress spends for ads on b'day of nehru,indra,rajiv each year.
Now you decide.
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Nov 02, 2013 06:39am
Sardar not only unified 562 princely states , but also helped India to win Kashmir, Goa , Junagarh and Hyderabad and restoration of Somnath temple. He and his role needs to be exemplified to our children. I may agree that his statue may not be tallest but the contribution for the project is to be done by common people and not from state treasury as was done by Mayawati or Congress. The project cost hardly matches with the amount of money looted by netas .
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Nov 02, 2013 07:17pm
Wastage of resources and money, another way of corruption in India. People are living in slums, and the politicians are making fun by creating Stoned Statue worth 25 billion rupees. Just imagine, what a shame for poor people of India. They need food Mr. Moodi not stones to eat.
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Nov 02, 2013 10:08pm
@ all pakistani's ,one thing i have to say to u all ,we have the money to build this statue nd we are building it ,who are u to suggest anything to us ,people living on foreign aides telling us ,where the money shud be spent ,hehehehe.we are a 3 trillion economy ,we can accomadte it ,think about urself ,u cant even run ur country without funds
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Nov 03, 2013 01:29am
Total waste for a country that has a sizeable population worse off than sub-saharan Africa.
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Nov 03, 2013 04:03am
@Jawad :
Wow! Calling him a communalist is like calling General Zia a secularist. A communalist Hindu is better than a moderate Muslim any given day.But again you have a twisted mind probably because of your education.
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Nov 03, 2013 05:46am
Brilliant political tactic of Narendra Modi / BJP to win the forthcoming elections in India. A similar thing was done by PMLN in Lahore when they came out with the Metro Bus Service Project just prior to the elections. **All is Fair in Love and War and Politics.**
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Nov 03, 2013 07:27am
@Singh:
Are you starving?
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Nov 03, 2013 11:51am
@Shah:
Please read history carefully and on my request ....please don't read them from Pakistani text books. Muslim league was made to prove the loyalty of Muslims to the British raj....not to fight against the britishers. While there were nationalism growing amongst Indians...in 1906 muslim league was formed to prove the loyalty of muslims. Do you think the concerns of muslim league should have been heard. And more over if they were all so brainy....Pakistan should have been the highly respected country in the world.
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Nov 03, 2013 12:07pm
@Magister Ludi:
Who gave you these figures. Please get your facts right about how much india spends on education every year....its more than the total defence expenditure of Pakistan in 1 year.
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Nov 03, 2013 12:09pm
@Singh:
You are right.....I too protested against on 300 years celebration of khalsa panth in 1999 .....the point is if you can spend millions on religion....what stops you from spending for nationalism
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Nov 03, 2013 12:32pm
I don't know what we in India can achieve by this record. The tallest building? Yes. People live and work in it. The tallest statue? Why? Use the money to feed the poor. Only when a country has met the basic needs of the people can it expend money to build something like this.
In the meantime if you really care for the man, pray for him, appreciate him, hold a nationwide memorial for him, declare a holiday. But build an expensive statue at the cost of the starving man on the street reeks of poor judgement.
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Nov 03, 2013 12:51pm
@Nayyar Pakistani:
that is what you think. we in india believe that gandhi was responsible for partition. he may be like in literature and movies.
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