AHMEDABAD: Farmers were urged yesterday to hand over scraps of metal and tools for the world’s tallest statue, as construction began on what promoters hope will be a wonder of the world.
The tribute to Sardar Patel, the first home minister of independent India, is set to be twice the size of the Statue of Liberty and four times higher than Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
The metal structure, a pet project of opposition leader Narendra Modi in his home state of Gujarat, will rise 182m (600 feet) from an island in the Narmada river when completed in four years’ time.
Modi laid the foundation stone yesterday and urged farmers to donate tools which will be melted down and used in the memorial to a politician nicknamed the “Iron Man of India.”
“People come to see the Taj Mahal, flock to America for the Statue of Liberty and France for the Eiffel Tower. Now people from all over the world will come here to see this wonder,” Modi said.
“We have asked farmers from every village in India to give old pieces of their agricultural tools, just 200g or 400g would do,” he added from the site at Kevadia, 170km from Gujarat’s biggest city Ahmedabad.
A metal collection effort covering nearly 700,000 villages across the country began yesterday and last until January 26 next year, state officials said.
The total cost of the statue is estimated at `25bn ($300m) and will be funded with public funds and private donations.
When finished, it will tower by 54m over the 128m Spring Temple Buddha in China’s Henan province which is currently the world’s tallest statue.
The memorial has strong political undertones as it honours an independence hero who spent his life in the Congress party, the main rival of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national elections next year.
Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, suggested earlier this week that Patel, who is from Gujarat, would have made a better leader than India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
This was a provocative dig at India’s modern-day Gandhi political dynasty, led by Congress chief Sonia and her son Rahul, who are descended from Nehru.
The family has ruled for most of India’s post-independence history.
The theme of national unity represented by Patel is also attractive to Modi as he tries to paint himself as a secular, centrist candidate in the diverse country of 1.2 billion people.
AFP
