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INDIA HAS INAUGURATED the world’s biggest statue with pomp, fireworks and tight security amid an outcry among local groups over the cost of the 182 metre high reproduction of an Indian independence hero.
Activists said about a dozen of their leaders had been detained before Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially opened the tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with an air force jet flyover, helicopters showering flowers on the statue and fireworks in the green, orange and white national colours.
“Today is a day that will be remembered in the history of India,” said Modi who hailed Sardar Patel’s “strategic thinking” in bringing together the disparate country after independence in 1947 and the Statue of Unity as “a symbol of our engineering and technical prowess”.
But around the statue in a remote corner of Gujarat state, more than 5,000 police guarded the huge site where construction work has taken nearly four years to complete the megaproject. Hundreds of Chinese have been among the 3,500 workers.
Anand Mazgaonkar, a community group leader in Narmada district, said plain clothes police took away 12 people late yesterday to the local police headquarters.
Police denied they had made any detentions. But authorities took no chances in case community groups staged protests to demand compensation for land taken to erect the statue of Unity, which cost 29.9 billion rupees (€360 million).
“Police patrolling has been intensified in the wake of protests by the local tribal community and leaders. Drones and helicopters will be keeping watch on the entire area,” said Narmada police inspector general Abhay Chudasama ahead of the ceremony.
The chiefs of 22 local villages signed a letter calling on Modi to stay away from the inauguration.
Posters of Modi with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani were torn down or had their faces blackened at the weekend. Police kept watch on posters put in place of the torn ones.
Nationalist giant
Local legislator and community group leader Chotu Vasava said: “Tribal groups have been exploited by different governments, the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is repeating it again.”
“I am not against Sardar, but what is the use of the statue if the people on the land have to suffer and are moved from their homes?”
More than 80% of the local population are from tribal groups with special protected status.
The Gujarat government said the 185 families moved to make way for the statue had been compensated and given 1,200 acres of new land.
Modi, whose nationalist government has made the statue one of its flagship projects, paid tribute while the air force jets roared overhead and dance troupes performed.
Sardar Patel’s name had been largely overshadowed by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated Indian politics since 1947. But Modi-inspired nationalists have sought to put their hero back in the forefront.
The statue is more than twice the size of New York’s Statue of Liberty and also dwarfs the 128 metre high Spring Temple Buddha in China, the world’s next-biggest statue. It is made up of nearly 100,000 tonnes of concrete and steel.
Online booking to visit the Statue of Unity has opened with a 350 rupee (€4.17) admission fee for the 153-metre-high observation deck.
Indian authorities hope the statue will attract 15,000 visitors a day to the remote corner of Gujarat, which is about 100 kilometres from the nearest city of Vadodora.
India is also working on a giant statue of 17th-century warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, which should dominate the Mumbai shoreline from 2021. The current design would make it 212 metres high.
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Car crash tv for donaldson,the only thing coming out of his mouth was the protocol and had nothing to back up his claims.they are been found out for the spoofers that they are.hopefully there is a big change in northern Ireland after this election
@doyle: once a blue nose always always a blue nose. It will never get better unfortunately.
@Paul Gorry: I’m putting the monkey on us for the final. Very confident now i have to say.
@Vonvonic: iam glad it’s your monkey. Best of luck.
@doyle: DUP could be in big trouble if todays poll figures are accurate, because if the DUP and Alliance are level on 18.2% in first preference votes, then you must assume that Alliance will be far more transfer friendly than the DUP.
Early retirement for Jeffrey?
If this was a private company and they had to forsake their salaries or go back to work there is no question what they would do !
@Michael Loughnane: It was funny the only person in the audience to speak out in support of Jeffrey and the DUP’s stance on the Protocol was an Englishman.
@Joe Johnson: And that English man, Dan Boucher, is an ex Tory party activist who stood for the Torys in Wales but failed to get elected and has now joined the DUP. Possibly being lined up to take Jeff’s MLA seat so Jeff can continue as an MP in Westminster. He was also a prominent writer for Brexit Central.
Naomi Long was blindingly good tonight as was the SDLP guy. The Unionists are at each other’s throats. I hope the electorate take heed.
@Mary Conneely: Long and Eastwood were good. O’Neill afraid to open her mouth in case she put her foot in it. Beattie is the voice of reason in the Unionist camp and Eastwood is the best of the nationalist bunch, even with him being threatened with legal action by the Shinners. Sure who aren’t they threatening with legal action.
@GrumpyAulFella: Donaldsons disaster of a night as you failed to mention have shown up the dup big time..Sinn Fein an all island government soon..amazingly had only a handful of seats few years back but thanks to ff/fg mishandling the country putting it mildly they are the biggest party in the country.It must really hurt die hards like you to see Sinn Feins rise at your party’s demise.Leo and the boys think the turnaround is due to a savvy Sinn Féin social media campaign but its there total inept to do their jobs is what brought them down
@Brian Burns: You can only say that with certainty 5 years after the next general election but what’s the betting the mantra then will be 5 years wasn’t enough for SF to implement the changes needed to make our society a fairer one? I suppose a political change will be a good start but it will take some effort to get everyone on board to stop the waste and to build a more equal republic. Here’s hoping.
@Brian Burns: I’m surprised FG were not out canvassing for the DUP or the UUP
@Brian Burns: my party’s demise?? What party are you referring to? I’m afraid that 33% of the vote in the Republic, with no party willing to touch you with a barge pole will see your comrades stay on the back benches mo chara.
@GrumpyAulFella: your despise of sf,a party never in government is a result of media manipulation my friend,a subservient man who defends the government of the day without any critical thought,the polls speak for themselves, the media don’t fool the young so much as the old.Times are a changing me oul pal our day will come
@Tom Leddy: That old chestnut we hadn’t enough time,inherited a poisoned chalice nonsense that fg gave us first five yeArs after Bertie and the boys were ousted was a joke.If SF can’t implement change in five years move onto social democrats etc till some party stands up for the people..
@Shaun Gallagher: their mates in the journal did dup canvassing for them oul Jeffrey got great coverage here lately
@GrumpyAulFella:And I assume by your statement thatyou vote for FFG. I’m surprised that you haven’t also mentioned Maria Cahill like your handlers.
Sad people. They’re making it so that noone with any self respect could possibly pretend to care. Sad Sad Sad ulster unionism.
@Vonvonic: I thought they all done well except Jeffrey. He should of jumped at the chance to rejoin the UUP because the DUP hardline approach is not working anymore. The young people just think their Dinosaur attitude is from another era.
Hope that Alliance keep building election on election from here on in, a future merger/pact between them and the SDLP down the line might be the best way to go on the longer term path to normality and an eventual United Ireland as more of the TUV/DUP dinosaurs die off
90 seats, 38 constituencies! Madness. Bigger the table, less work gets done. DUP sliding can be a blessing or a hindrance as orange need representation and without it we could see a bit of anarchy. Alliance is obviously a more balanced keel so hope it manifests in the votes.
But 90 seats? – Mad Ted !
@Noel Lynn: Until 6 years ago, it was 108. High numbers were necessary to achieve the proper proportional representation and to get the Good Friday Agreement over the line.
The Alliance are just moderate unionists. They always vote that was when push comes to shove.
@Neil A Campbell: they are middle of the road with representation from many communities, not just Unionists.
@Neil A Campbell: they are middle of the road with representation from many communities, not just Unionists. That’s what makes them interesting to voters.
@Con Cussed: just as FFG/Lab are existentially committed to a 26 County state so are Alliance to a 6 County statelet. They are certainly not United Irelanders.
Jeffrey’s boycott. Sticky wicket. I see what you did there.
You can be first minister in 26.6% of the vote. It’s ludicrous
@Rory: As a result of a backroom deal, there will soon be a new Taoiseach of the Republic; a Taoiseach coming from a party which only received 20.9% of the vote. Becoming Taoiseach backed by a party which only received 22.2% of the vote, and who´s leader said in the very first press statement after the results “the people voted for change, there will be no coalition with Fine Gale” … ;-)
@Rory: Have a good look at Minister Eamon Ryan.
@Rory: insanity. But this is going to be fun to watch. The Shinners have an awful habit of slagging off Donnelly’s third level education background. I don’t think O’Neill even wen’t beyond grammar school and she’ll be the FM of Northern Ireland.
@GrumpyAulFella: read michaels reply then read yours..you have lost the room again you ain’t making sense again so you double down on your hateful anti SF rhetoric..some buzz off ya tho
@Michael Mike Mathäß: nobody will reply to that factual well spoken comment Michael get out of here
@GrumpyAulFella: Anyone who uses the name Shinners shows his party colours immediately. Intelligent people dont refer to Find Gael as blueshirts or compare Fianna Fail with brown envelopes and corruption of the highest order. Using insults instead of facts is not conversation, it just shows your lack of education in how to put your point across no matter how farcical.
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