Come 31 October, India will get a new landmark, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, described by the Gujarat government as the world’s tallest, on the birth anniversary of India’s first Home Minister. Patel’s achievements in creating ‘united India’ were tall and the leader of that stature certainly deserves a statue of this kind. The Gujarat government is organising a fitting function for its unveiling and efforts are being made to make it a pan-Indian event by inviting leaders from across the country.Though Patel was a Congress leader, he has become a revered figure for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which has sought to project an ideological connect between its espousal of nationalism and his efforts to integrate hundreds of States and regions into India following its Independence. And with Patel hailing from Gujarat, the home State of Modi, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to carry forward his legacy.
It may be recalled that Modi had laid the foundation stone for the statue project 31 October 2013 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Its work order was given on 3 December 2014, months after Modi became the Prime Minister. From then, the PM is said to be showing keen interest in the development of the statue and is now set to inaugurate it by the end of this month. A museum is also coming up, which will have 40,000 documents, 2,000 photographs and a research centre dedicated to Sardar Patel’s life. Let the fame of the unsung leader spread across the world through these initiatives.