Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Statue of Unity
A Statue of unity to be constructed in a disunited country like India was the best satire to the state of affairs in India. The Statue of Sardar Patel will be double the height of the Statue of Liberty in the USA and five times taller than the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The construction is estimated to cost USD 324,014,686/-, and will be completed in four years.
Such a huge amount of money spent
for a statue?? Could this not be put to better use on basic amenities such as
infrastructure or sanitation where we are the worst amongst developing countries?
Could this not be spent on education for children in the region where this
statue will be erected? These kids would have had an opportunity to a quality education,
and these children who are our future would help in uniting India better, than
a statue standing looking at India getting fragmented on lines of religion,
cast, creed and region.
The proposed 182-meter tall
Sardar Patel's statue will be erected on a small rocky island in the middle of
the Narmada riverbed facing Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia. The statue will have
steel framing, reinforced cement concrete, and bronze coating. A statue on a
rocky island in the middle of river, when bridges could have been built across
many rivers in India that could have united many villages or states and reduced
time in travel. A pedestrian bridge built during common wealth games in 2010
held in India collapses. When we can’t build a simple pedestrian bridge, and shame
ourselves in front of the world at a sporting event, what unity are we trying
to prove with a statue?
Visitors will be able to rise up
to the height of the structure’s head, walk into a viewing gallery and enjoy a
panoramic view of the Sardar Sarovar Nigam project from an astounding height of
close to 400ft. Wish some sense could be driven into the heads of our
politicians who are unfortunately way above 400ft from the reality facing
India. Any height of a monument will not cover the ugly mess of affairs any
state in India is. Even if it does once you walk out of the monumental area,
one is hit in the face with garage littered streets, overflowing sewers,
ghettos and poverty.
The observation deck at 500ft can
accommodate 200 people at a time. Wouldn’t it have been better if we could have
transportation or housing that could accommodate people? Public transportation
in India, does carry much more than that volume of people, the only difference
is people are transported worse than garbage. Accommodation in India is worse,
where if the average man has a roof over his head, there would be more than the
no. of people that can be accommodated in a basic, decent living space. The homeless and the destitute living in
ghettos the situation is sad. The irony is at the same time we have one family
that has the most expensive home in the world, with 600 staff to cater to a
family of six members.
Why is India competing in
building monumental structures? What are we trying to prove? Can we not compete
in Infrastructure, public transportation, health care, education, sanitation, law
and order, drinking water, access to clean food or for that matter simple clean
air, or would we have to climb monuments in India to even breathe clean air? Talking
about monuments the best monument that comes to mind when one thinks of India,
is the Taj Mahal, where the artisans who crafted the monument, their hands
were chopped off, so another Taj Mahal could never be built. Proudly we boast it to
be a monument of love.
Similarly India today is bloodied
with riots, rapes, murders, communal violence, corruption, states being
fragmented to make new states, but we would be proud to say "We have a statue of unity".
Comments:
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Nicely written Sunny. This is Modi's and BJP's cheap attempt to lay claim to the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In this slugfest to appropriate the legacy of this great son of the soil who really united India, the Congress and the BJP is forgetting the people of this country as you rightly pointed out.
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