Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani flagged off ‘Ekta Yatra’ from Bardoli in south Gujarat to create awareness about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contribution in integrating 562 Princely States under the fold of Union of India at the time of Independence amidst chanting of slogans of ‘Ek Bharat; Shreshtha Bharat (One India; Great India).
This is in the run-up to unveiling the Statue of Unity by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary on October 31. The Ekta Yatra is scheduled to cover 10,000 villages of the state to cover all sections of the populace irrespective of their caste, creed or community group, while 60 Ekta Raths (chariots) will tour 5,000 villages in phase one.
The Statue of Unity has been built near Kevadia downstream the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) dam on the Narmada, touted to be the world’s highest statue. Bardoli was the place from where Sardar Patel had launched Satyagraha (civil disobedience) in 1928 against the British Government’s decision to increase tax by 30 per cent.
Speaking on the occasion CM Rupani said the Ekta Yatra has been taken up ‘in the larger interest of the nation’. It was Sardar Patel who had counselled and persuaded the princes to join India at the time of partition, he said adding that had there been no Sardar Patel, India’s map would have looked different, forcing Indians to seek visa for visiting Junagadh and Hyderabad. Sardar Patel had many more singular contributions, including refurbishing the Somnath Temple, rising above the politics of appeasement for cultural integration, he added.
“It is the Government’s duty to convey the great leaders’ contributions to the people. Sardar Patel’s messages would reach every home during Ekta Yatra. The previous governments’ attempt to praise only one family-dynasty and delete chapters on national leaders like Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Dr Ambedkar and Veer Savarkar from history,” he said.
Meanwhile, CM Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel reviewed the preparedness of the grand inauguration ceremony of Statue of Unity – the tallest statue of the world.
He also met key persons in completing the statue project in time.