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The world's tallest statue was unveiled today in the state of Gujarat, western India, at a prestigious ceremony chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At 597 feet, the sculpture is almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and Dwarf Buddha of the Temple of Spring in China, until today the highest statue in the world, 177 feet.
Called Statue of Unity, this new giant sculpture immortalizes Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, leader of Indian independence and first vice-prime minister of the country; it was inaugurated what would have been his 143rd birthday. While Patel's bronze figure stared at the Kevadiya settlement, about 260 km from Mumbai, the capital of Bollywood, a military plane flew over the ground, scattering flower petals and tracing the colors of the Indian flag. plume form.
"This statue is an answer to anyone who questions the power and power of India," said Modi in his speech before heading to religious rites marking the unveiling. "It's an honor for me to be able to dedicate this statue to the nation."
But everyone in the country is not enthusiastic about the gigantic image, which took 33 months to build, at a cost of $ 400 million, in a public-private venture partially funded by crowdfunding. A few hours before the unveiling, near the site, crowds of farmers and members of tribal communities chanted slogans and tore up posters of the statue to protest what they see as a huge waste of money. # 39; money.
"They have no past to invoke"
In fact, the Statue of Unity has not generated much harmony since its design was announced in October 2013 by Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat and candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Critics say this sculpture is a crude attempt by Hindu Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata (BJP) to rewrite political history. Its completion in view of the much-anticipated 2019 general election is also likely to make a lot of noise among Hindu right-wing voters who make up the BJP's power base.
Patel is one of the legendary figures of the Indian nation. When the 584 princely states of the subcontinent had the choice to join Pakistan or India after the partition of 1947, Patel convinced more than 550 of them to join him. For this he became known as the Iron Man of India.
He came from modest beginnings in the state of Gujarat, just like Modi, who never misses an opportunity to express admiration for his compatriot, Gujarati. The BJP-led coalition even said that Patel's birthday would be National Unity Day just months after he came to power in 2014.
Mahatma Gandhi with Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru. 1947. Gandhi was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in India under British rule. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was an Indian statesman, a leader of the Indian National Congress and a founding father of the Republic of India. Archives of Universal History – UIG / Getty Images.
Archives of Universal History – UIG / Getty Images.
But there is only one problem: Patel has nothing to do with the BJP. He was in fact a member of the BJP's great political rival, the center-left Indian National Congress (commonly called the Congress or Congress Party).
Critics say that the BJP, founded in 1951, attempts to take over Patel's legacy and aura, since he can not count among his former members any independent, independent leader.
"A party that claims to do everything in the name of the nation has no past to invoke," said Sucheta Mahajan, a professor at the Center for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Even worse, the BJP Is Mahatma Gandhi, assassin of independence, murdered in 1948. Nathuram Godse, the murderer of Gandhi, was a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu paramilitary organization considered as the parent of the BJP.
Repeated requests for comments addressed to several BJP spokespersons for this article remained unanswered. However, Modi has said in the past that Patel was politically dismissed by Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister (his great-grandson Rahul Gandhi, happened to be Modi's opponent in the next elections).
Congress refutes that. "The BJP is trying to build a story that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru still disagreed," Congressional spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi told TIME. "In trying to politicize and usurp the legacy of our former leaders, the BJP is also trying to demonize us."
"It's a matter of shame"
In addition to its symbolism, questions were also asked about the physical statue itself. Larsen and Toubro, the construction company that built the effigy, admitted that its bronze coating came from China. Although the cladding is only nine percent of the statue, it could embarrass Modi, who has relied heavily on a "Make In India" initiative to encourage companies to manufacture on the spot. Online pictures at the beginning of the year, showing Chinese workers at the statue's site, did not help.
"It is shameful that" Made in China "is engraved behind this statue," said Rahul Gandhi, president of Congress, at a rally in September.
The opposition parties, led by Congress, will not fail to provoke Modi during the campaign for the 2019 elections, especially because of India's growing unemployment.
"This can only happen because the atmosphere is divisive and everything that is likely to create divisions has unfortunately become the motto of the political parties in this country," the famous political scientist Sudha Pai told TIME. .
Even though the dispute over the Statue of Unity continues, a taller and perhaps even more discordant sculpture is being prepared off the coast of Mumbai. Scheduled to be completed in 2021, it is Chhatrapati Shivaji, a Hindu warrior king, revered for fighting the Muslim rulers.
"It's an attempt to symbolize him as the Hindu leader of the resurrection against the Islamic regime, rather as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim conflict," TIME at Mohan Guruswamy, president of Center For Policy Alternatives, told IRIN. public policy.
Since taking office, the Modi-led government has taken steps to remove some reminders of Muslim presence in Indian history. The Muslim names of many cities and major stations were traded for Hindu alternatives, for example. And the Taj Mahal – a Muslim mausoleum built by a Mughal emperor of the seventeenth century – was left out in a tourism brochure published by the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh, where stands the monument world famous.
For Pai, symbolism and appropriation have already gone too far. "Statues have symbols and values and we have to leave them out because they sort of divide the nation," she said.
For others, the symbolism of Indian power – and in particular of Hindu power – is just beginning. "Take note of the message we send to the world with this statue," said TIME a supporter of the BJP at the unveiling. "Just that thought gives me chills in the back."
