Statue of unity: a world landmark | India News

Time magazine, in 1947, called it "The Boss," which united more than 562 disparate princely states. Many had hailed it as the Indian Bismarck. The face of the country's first Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, affectionately nicknamed "The Iron Man of India", is now wearing bronze representing the tallest statue in the world (182 meters, or two times the height of the Statue of Liberty) built at a project cost of 2 979 crore on Sadhu Beyt.

The breathtaking Statue of Unity is set against the sparkling basaltic rocks of the Vindhya and Satpura Hills of the Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. The statue, worthy of the stature of Sardar, is scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, the anniversary of the birth of Sardar, the BJP giving the kickoff to his Lok Sabha polling campaigns of 2019.

In 2010, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, he revealed his plans for the construction of the statue of unity. Modi had then declared: "It is a tribute to the great man who united India.The state government and my party (BJP) decided to build the world's highest statue dedicated to Sardar Patel. "

The massive BJP campaign then linked Modi to Sardar's political style and the emphasis on "good governance". As early as 2002, in the era of Gaurav Yatra, Modi was often called "Chhote Sardar".

Initially, the Statue of Unity was to mark the passage of Modi for a decade as chief minister of Gujarat, in the run-up to the 2012 legislative elections. But soon, the statue of Sardar was extrapolated to become the rallying point of BJP's Lok Sabha election campaign in 2014, when large rallies and marathons like Run for Unity were organized by the BJP.

The Statue of Unity is ambitious in both scale and design. The rising structure will be complemented by an integrated complex comprising a hotel, a memorial garden and a visitor center, 3.5 km from the Sardar Sarovar dam. Complicated engineering work and composite reinforcement were needed to support the enormous structure on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the Narmada River bed.

The project website indicates that about 3 samples of lakh soil were collected, as well as 700 tons of iron in the form of farm implements from all parts of the country. And now, the completion of the Statue of Unity will serve as a BJP engine engine to mobilize the masses with the message of national unity and prepare them for 2019.

Dinesh Shukla, an expert in political science, said: "Modi has used the Statue of Unity to rally support for his 2014 Lok Sabha campaign and, once the project is over, he will try to use it to mobilize masses in 2019. " He adds, "The statue can help the BJP to a certain extent with regard to the Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat."