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The 517-meter-tall "Steel and Bronze Statue of Unity", located in the western state of Gujarat, the Prime Minister's first country, is part of the efforts of its Hindu nationalist party to rename he calls "forgotten" leaders.
"Patel wanted India to be a strong, sensitive, vigilant and accommodating nation, and we are working towards that," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Wednesday's ceremony.
Modi, who commissioned the statue built on the Narmada River while he was chief minister of Gujarat, said last year that efforts had been made to "downplay" or "rule out" the project. "History" The contributions of Patel, who had helped unify the 562 princely states of India. minister of the house or the interior.
The funds for the statue came from the federal government, state companies and other institutions. It was built in 33 months by the construction and engineering company Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
Representing the bald Patel in traditional costume, with a shawl over his shoulders, the statue used 210,000 cubic meters of cement, 25,000 tons of steel and 1,700 tons of bronze.
Some of the leaders that Modi described as "forgotten" came from the opposition Congress party and fought for the independence of the British colonial ruler in 1947.
Modi and his party Bharatiya Janata (BJP), which face five national elections and legislative elections scheduled for May, go back in history and offer alternatives to the heroes of the Nehru-Gandhi family, who dominated the Congress.
The BJP said the Congress had deliberately ignored leaders such as Patel, B.R. Ambedkar, who led the drafting of the constitution, and Subhas Chandra Bose, freedom fighter.
The accusations are a distortion of history, said Congress, which has ruled India for much of its independent history and is now led by Rahul Gandhi, great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister. Indian minister.
"It's ironic that a statue of Sardar Patel was inaugurated, but all the institutions that he helped build are destroyed," Gandhi said on the social network Twitter, using an honorary title for Patel.
"The systematic destruction of institutions in India is nothing short of a betrayal."
Some political commentators have blamed Modi for her spending on the statues complex at a time when the indigenous Adivasi people who are exploiting the land acquired for this land are in a difficult economic situation and have protested against it.
"Surely you would ask on which earth would this statue be? What plan was it? Social activist Medha Patkar said in an open letter to Patel.
"This land, river, forest on which your avatar is going to stand belongs to the adivasis."
