Soil, sweat, and toil from Punjab will go into the Statue of Unity — all set to rise from the spirit of nationalism in Gujarat.
Come January 5, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s youth wing — Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) — will march into the border districts of Punjab for gathering soil. For the launch of the nationwide movement of setting up the statue of country's 'Iron Man' Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at Kevada in Narmada district of Gujarat, the saffron brigade has strategically chosen Punjab — the state that played a pivotal role in the struggle for country's independence and remained in the forefront in making sacrifices for attaining freedom.
Termed as the “Rashtriya Surksha Abhiyaan (National Security Mission)”, a fortnight-long programme would be launched by the BJYM national president Anurag Thakur on Sunday at Asafwala border in Fazilka district in the presence of the State BJP chief Kamal Sharma, the State Cabinet Minister and local MlA Surjit Kumar Jiyani, the state BJYM president Mohit Gupta, among others.
“It is a 14-day event during which one kilogram soil would be collected for the Statue of Unity from the international borders across the country from different states. The programme would start from January 5, and the activity of collecting soil will finish on January 18,” BJYM member Mohit Sood told
The Pioneer.
India shares its border with seven countries — Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Sri lanka, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, with the longest border with Pakistan. Elaborating, Sood said that the soil gathered from different borders would then be collected at party's Delhi headquarters by January 21.
“The collected soil will then be mixed thoroughly at party's central office on January 22, and a seminar will be organized on January 23 which would be attended by party's national president Rajnath Singh, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, and other prominent party leaders,” he added.
Drawing a bead on the feeling of patriotism across the nation, the party would also organize a blood donation camp on January 23 across the country aiming at collecting 50,000 units of blood.
“As the name goes, each and every programme under the statue of unity is aimed at uniting the country along with arising the feeling of nationalism among every citizen,” said Sood. For erecting an archetype of unity of India's first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel by recycling farming equipment and using soil brought from every nook and corner of the country, the BJP has already set in motion the movement to collect iron and soil, besides organising marathon, marches, competitions, signing petitions, among other things.
Coming up with almost double the size of effigy of liberty in the US, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi led Gujarat government has joined hands with several non-governmental organisations for the purpose of building the “world's highest statue” of 'Iron Man of India'.
“dream project” is the gigantic task of erecting 182-metres high statue depicting Sardar Patel spread over 20,000 square meter area. The statue would be built at Sadhu-Bet Island, approximately 3.5 kms south of Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia.
The 'Statue of Unity' would be double the height of Statue of liberty in New York, five times the height of Statue of Christ The Redeemer in Rio De Janeiro, one and a half times the Sardar Sarovar Dam itself.
A total of 5,000 tonne iron is expected to be used for the entire project, out of which 700 tonne iron is expected to be collected in the form of donation from farmers.
For the project's first phase, an expenditure of whopping Rs2,000 crore is estimated with which three-level base of the Statue would be made having exhibit floor, first balcony and the roof containing Memorial Garden and a large continuous exhibit hall to be developed as visitor attraction focusing on the contributions of Sardar Patel besides a state-of-the-art Underwater Aquarium. Forty-two months is the time in which project's first phase is expected to be completed.