*NEW DELHI – India on Wednesday inaugurated the world´s biggest statue withpomp, fireworks and tight security amid an outcry among local groups overthe cost of the 182 metre (600 feet) high reproduction of an Indianindependence hero.*
Activists said about a dozen of their leaders had been detained beforePrime Minister Narendra Modi officially opened the tribute to SardarVallabhbhai Patel, with an air force jet flyover, helicopters showeringflowers on the statue and fireworks in the green, orange and white nationalcolours.
“Today is a day that will be remembered in the history of India,” said Modiwho hailed Sardar Patel´s “strategic thinking” in bringing together thedisparate country after independence in 1947 and the Statue of Unity as “asymbol of our engineering and technical prowess.”
But around the statue in a remote corner of Gujarat state, more than 5,000police guarded the huge site where construction work has taken nearly fouryears to complete the megaproject. Hundreds of Chinese have been among the3,500 workers.
Anand Mazgaonkar, a community group leader in Narmada district, said plainclothes police took away 12 people late Tuesday to the local policeheadquarters.
Police denied they had made any detentions. But authorities took no chancesin case community groups staged protests to demand compensation for landtaken to erect the statue of Unity, which cost 29.9 billion rupees ($400million).
“Police patrolling has been intensified in the wake of protests by thelocal tribal community and leaders. Drones and helicopters will be keepingwatch on the entire area,” said Narmada police inspector general AbhayChudasama ahead of the ceremony.
The chiefs of 22 local villages signed a letter calling on Modi to stayaway from the inauguration.
Posters of Modi with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani were torn down orhad their faces blackened at the weekend. Police kept watch on posters putin place of the torn ones.
*Nationalist giant*
Local legislator and community group leader Chotu Vasava said: “Tribalgroups have been exploited by different governments, the ruling BJP(Bharatiya Janata Party) is repeating it again.”
Read Top Stories
“I am not against Sardar, but what is the use of the statue if the peopleon the land have to suffer and are moved from their homes?”
More than 80 percent of the local population are from tribal groups withspecial protected status.
The Gujarat government said the 185 families moved to make way for thestatue had been compensated and given 1,200 acres (475 hectares) of newland.
Modi, whose nationalist government has made the statue one of its flagshipprojects, paid tribute while the air force jets roared overhead and dancetroupes performed.
Sardar Patel´s name had been largely overshadowed by the Nehru-Gandhidynasty that has dominated Indian politics since 1947. But Modi-inspirednationalists have sought to put their hero back in the forefront.
The statue is more than twice the size of New York´s Statue of Liberty andalso dwarfs the 128 metre (400 feet) high Spring Temple Buddha in China,the world´s next-biggest statue. It is made up of nearly 100,000 tonnes ofconcrete and steel.
Online booking to visit the Statue of Unity has opened with a 350 rupee($4.75) admission fee for the 153-metre-high observation deck.
Indian authorities hope the statue will attract 15,000 visitors a day tothe remote corner of Gujarat, which is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) fromthe nearest city of Vadodora.
India is also working on a giant statue of 17th-century warrior kingChhatrapati Shivaji, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, which shoulddominate the Mumbai shoreline from 2021. The current design would make it212 metres high. – APP/AFP
