Colossal statue of India’s Independence leader Vallabhbhai Patel has been inaugurated in Gujarat.
What is the significance of statue of unity?
The government has indicated that the 182-metre high statue, the world’s tallest, is in commemoration of Patel’s efforts.
The 182 meter height was decided to match the number of assembly constituencies in the state.
The statue is being built near the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the tribal-dominated Narmada district, close to 200 kilometres from Ahmedabad.
He was India’s first deputy prime minister to create the Union of India out of disparate provinces and princely states in the early years after Independence.
What are few disquieting issues about the project?
Huge investment - The cost of the project is almost Rs 30 billion, it is hard to argue that this is the most important priority for a cash-strapped government.
The government would argue that the project is capable of earning significant amounts of revenue from tourism made possible by the construction of the statue.
But it could also be argued that the money spent on the statue could instead have funded several modern institutes of higher education; or, for that matter, irrigated several tens of thousands of under-productive agricultural land.
Social concerns - The statue is located is controversial Sardar Sarovar project, which continues to be dogged by accusations of a failure to properly resettle and rehabilitate the members of the Scheduled Tribes, who were displaced.
Political will - The tallest statue in the world has been built in a relatively short time it was announced before 2014, but construction only took off in recent years. It has been delivered well before estimates.
This is another reminder, if any was in fact needed, that India can get its act together when it comes to projects if the political will indeed exists.
Pressure of the government - About 10 per cent of the funding for the statue came from the corporate social responsibility budgets of various public sector undertakings.
It is a classic example of government pressuring companies to pay up for the administration’s desire to put up grand projects, this will also lead to competitive statue-building in other states.
