as much as Rs 200 crore has been allocated for the “national unity” statue of Sardar Patel, a pet project of Narendra Modi when he was officiating as Gujarat Chief Minister! A mere statue is being awarded higher pedestal than welfare of girl child, safety of vulnerable women and betterment of the lot of tribals!
So, the “progressive” and “humanitarian” India accords greater sanctity and priority to mere non living objects than precious human lives! At first, coffers of Gujarat were being diverted towards the statue instead of utilizing it better by looking after the interests of 47 percent of Gujarat children suffering from acute malnutrition and that of the hapless farmers of Saurashtra and Kutch who regularly commit suicides due to failure of crops, thanks to drastic water scarcity in the region.
The pathetic record of “developed” Gujarat in all scales and indexes of Human Development could have been bettered by meaningful utilization of money. And now a mammoth amount of Central fund is being diverted towards the statue project in such a country whose inhuman conditions have been blatantly exposed by the United Nations through its ‘Millennium Development Goals Report 2014’! The Report states that one-third of the world’s extremely poor population live in India. Moreover, how can the money of Centre or that of the citizens of the whole country be diverted for sponsoring a pet project of a particular state or leader? Since the Gujarat Government had initiated that project, then the statue should be completed through its own fund. Why will the Central Government of India sponsor it? Are the propagators of “Good Days” not enlightened of the fact that after assuming responsibility at the Central Government, they should remain accountable to the whole nation by rising above all regional and political affiliations? The Union Budget has indeed left an extremely bad taste in the mouth by witnessing supreme bias in favour of a particular state and preference for stunts of statues at the expense of human upliftment.
It is highly unfortunate that instead of solving innumerable burning problems that are plaguing the country since decades or eternity; the “apostles” of “Good Days” are concentrating all their energies, resources and time towards imposing Hindi upon this multi-lingual democratic country, erecting statues and initiating Bullet trains.
If Rs.200 crore is utilised for building a hospital or school bearing the name of Sardar Patel; not only would the cause of humanity be served, but the memory of the great leader would also be honoured in a much more meaningful way. Before allocating the mammoth amount for the statue project, the concerned mandarins should have heeded the immortal lines of that another great son of Gujarat ie the Mahatma — “Recall the face of the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him,. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? Will it lead to ‘swaraj’ for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?”
