Prof Nageshwar : Sardar Patel Statue of Unity , Mr Modi, Please answer these questions.

1. The world’s tallest statue of India’s iron man, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is appropriately called as Statue of Unity as he was responsible for merger of about 500 princely states into Indian union. The first home minister of India certainly deserves all praise for this unparalleled task accomplished with such meticulous effort. But, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to unite India’s political spectra for the unveiling of the statue. No other party leader was even invited. It was all BJP affair though the statue was constructed by a trust liberally funded by the government owned public sector units. Statue of Unity inaugurated amidst unprecedented disunity

2. Sardar Patel will no longer enjoy the prestige and the privilege as someone on whose name the world’s tallest statue is. This statue is 182 metres long. By 2021 , 212 metre statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji will come up. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister now talks of erecting the statue of Lord Rama. Many more state governments run by the regional parties may come up with more statue to remember their own icons. We already had the experience of Mayawati. Perhaps in a decade or two India may have the dubious distinction of having highest number of tall statues.

3. While dedicating the statue to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the towering statue as ‘a symbol of our engineering and technical prowess’. It is true, we have accomplished plastic surgery in the form of Lord Ganesha . We had internet during Mahabharat times as Sanjaya using the internet search engine saw the war to narrate it to Dhritarashtra . Ancient India mastered civil aviation as Ramayana talks about Pushpaka Vimana. But we never had such gigantic statues during Treta Yuga or Dvapara Yuga .

But , the Prime minister of modern India should realise that producing a laptop at a price of less than Rs 5000 or technology that can provide solar powered drinking water at a pittance is much greater engineering feat than constructing a statue.

4. The central government claims that it has not funded the statue construction. Can there be any bigger lie than this as oil PSU’s mainly funded it. Why not Mukesh Ambani or Gautam Adani, the proud Gujarati industrialists find it necessary to finance this grand project of Sardar Patel. Even the great nationalist Baba Ramdev who owns business worth 10,000 crore annual revenue did not contribute even a pittance to such a great nationalistic act.

5. Narendra Modi government collected around Rs. 7.5 lakh cores in the last four years in the form of taxes on petroleum products on the pretext that oil PSUs are bleeding. But, these public owned oil companies could contribute so much for the construction of statues under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). But do they not have Consumer Social Responsibility .

6. The statue project is also portrayed as a symbol of Indian nationalism. But, the government that swears in the name of Make in India imported micro panels of bronze from China .

7. Sardar Patel deserves honour . But why not such a unique honour bestowed on the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi who was also incidentally born in Gujarat.

8. Sardar Patel statue is projected as tourism project to counter the criticism of wasteful expenditure . If it is only tourism project, why not such a project be given to Andhra Pradesh which is demanding special status or to Hyderabad which was integrated into Indian union by none other than Sardar Patel .

( Prof.K. Nageshwar is India’s noted political analyst. He is a former member of the Telangana Legislative Council and professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India )