At the ground-breaking ceremony of Statue of Unity, Modi seemed in no mood to let go of the Iron Man.
Wondering why no one questioned political motives when other freedom fighters and leaders who were not Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members were endorsed by the saffron party, chief minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that great leaders such as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are a national treasure and not the private property of any particular political party.
Clearly, Modi is unwilling to let the grand old party lay claim to Patel’s legacy. He was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Statue of Unity, 3.32 km from Sardar Sarovar dam in Kevadia, on the occasion of the 138th birth anniversary of the Iron Man of India.
“Would we not honour Maharana Pratap or Chhatrapati Shivaji? Or Bhagat Singh, Rajguru or Sukhdev? Were any of them BJP members? Then why is there a question when we choose to commemorate the Sardar?” quizzed Modi. He was referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remark made during the latter’s visit to the city two days earlier.
“No one raised any objection to the building of Mahatma Mandir by us in the state capital. Now, why is there such a hue and cry over our building a statue in honour of Patel?” he asked.
Regarding his interaction with the PM earlier this week, Modi said that Singh had also acknowledged Sardar being a truly secular leader. “He was a secularist but that did not get in the way of the construction of Somnath temple. It is this true secularism that the country needs, and not vote-bank motivated secularism,” he said.
Giving the example of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, he added that just as the leader who worked selflessly for the cause of dalits, it was because of Patel that the country stood united after the British left, instead of breaking up into 562 parts.
According to the BJP’s PM candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Patel’s statue will be true to its name ‘Statue of Unity’ as it will bring in used iron from a claimed 7 lakh villages across the country.
He said, “This iron will be recycled and combined to form the material for building the structure. In this way, every villager from the country will proudly be able to say that there is a part of their village in the Rs2,500 crore statue project.”
Terming this the right time for the country to ‘globally position’ itself, Modi likened the proposed 182-metre structure to attempts by other countries towards the same goal.
“China changed the world’s outlook of the country by marketing Shanghai, while Japan used the bullet train and the United States relied on its space and Moon-landing programmes. Now, it is time for India to make its mark,” Modi said, hinting at the statue in no subtle manner.
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