The delegation from Gujarat that is on mission to garner support on the ambitious project of “Statue of Unity” of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on Thursday addressed people of all walks of life and requested their support in erecting a statue of India’s first Home Minister.
The larger than the life statue of Sardar who is also known as the ‘Iron Man’ is being created to highlight his contribution in uniting more than 500 princely states with India. The statue will be made of donated iron used in agricultural practices. “Our objective is not to collect iron. We could have asked industrialists of Jamshedpur and would have collected the required quantity of iron. But we are more interested in the participation of people and wish villages of the state to contribute in this movement,” said Dy Speaker of Gujarat Assembly, Mangubhai Patel.
Notably, details of the village making contribution will be displayed at the spot where the statue will come up. According to estimates, around 700 tonnes of iron will be needed to erect the 182-metre tall statue of Sardar. The project will be completed in four years at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore. The delegates from Gujarat whiling eliciting the camaraderie enjoyed by politicians of the both the region- Rajendra Prasad and Patel besides close cooperation between Jaiprakash Narayan and Morarjibhai Desai during the days of emergency- requested the people of Jharkhand to help Narendra Modi to become the Prime Minister of India.
“Both the states are similar to each other in various aspects. leaders of the region have always helped each other (in the national politics) hence I would request people to provide support to Narendra Modi also,” said Deputy Whip, Atmaram Parmar. Interestingly, the Gujarat BJP once again took a dig at the Congress party and derided them for allegedly ignoring Patel. “He (Patel) was a Congress leader but they did not do what we are doing (erecting statue),” said General Secretary of Gujarat BJP, Bharatbhai Pandya.