PM reduced persona of Sardar Patel to mere 182 mts
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, his role in pre and post-independent India is the most significant among all. He always remained close to Gandhiji and involved himself in the freedom struggle. He was a great support to the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. He was the first deputy PM of India and the home minister. He brought together the whole of India, under the leadership of Nehru. He coerced many provinces including the Mysore state, which hesitated to join the republic of India. At times of need, he even used Army to achieve the goal. He never thought just geography would bring a country together. He knew unless the states bond with each other on all fronts including emotional coming-together, it would be impossible to assume India would even exist in its form. Hence, even when provinces came together, he never interfered with the cultural identity of each segment. He allowed them to thrive as is. And the provinces could retain their local languages without being forced to speak a single language. Patel was the same man who wanted RSS banned for having plotted to disturb the integrity of the nation.
He always had ‘solidarity’ and ‘unity’ of the country. He was deeply disturbed by the celebrations that erupted in some parts of the country by RSS members, who distributed sweets over the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. He had written to Golvalkar expressing anxiety over RSS and its effect on integrity of India. Eventually, RSS had to get the ban lifted after promising in writing, that the organization would never indulge in political activities and would function only as a cultural outfit. But the RSS broke their promise. Though Patel did not live for long after independence, his contribution to unified India is unmatched. For all this, Indians have to be indebted to this towering personality who was the visionary of unified India. He has to be remembered not just one day, but every day by all Indians.To remember his work is to preserve the unity of the country and oppose the divisive forces that are out to split the nation. Patel brought the country together despite differences in caste, religion, creed and class. But today, the some forces are out to divide the country on the same lines that Patel unified them on.
Today, the country is feeling the difference between North and South. There are instances of the North Indians are launching cultural assaults on the South. Hindi imposition has led to widespread anger among people. Along with this, RSS that was to be banned by Patel, is shining in its glory. It has succeeded in dividing the country based on faith. If Patel was alive today, he would not have tolerated this even for a moment and would have banned RSS for good. He would have hated Bajrang Dal, and Sangh Parivar factions taking to streets creating unrest. The same forces that he opposed today are reigning supreme in the country. At a time like this, PM Modi has spent Rs 3000 cr on erecting the world’s largest statue in India, of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. He has called it the statue of unity. In his attempt to use this towering personality to his political benefit, he has reduced the persona of Sardar Patel to nothing but dust.
Nehru and Patel dreamt of an independent India with great vision. They wanted accomplished universities, organisations dedicated to science, and massive dams that could feed the hunger of India both metaphorically and knowledge-wise. If the country stands in a position of power today, it is the contribution of these two leaders that shaped the modern India. But as if to raze all their dreams, Modi has spent Rs 3000 crore at the cost of keeping most of the country hungry. He has been advertising about this feat as if it is the most significant aspect to the country as of now. Country’s economy is in doldrums post demonetization. Cottage industries have suffered a jolt. Rupee is losing its value with every progressive day. At a time like this, do we have the resources to spend Rs 3000 for a statue? Can the Modi government is rearing divisive forces in its own backyard, build a statue and create unity per se? Or, are Modi and Sangh Parivar out to mock the unity of Patel through this statue?
India could have set up two IITs or five IIMs with the money spent on the statue. ISRO could have undertaken five Mangalyans with this money. Karnataka has been requesting for farmer loan waiver since many years, only to hear the government’s refusal to do so. 4000 hectares of land could have been irrigated with this money. Or 162 small irrigation schemes could have been fixed, or modernized or even 425 check dams could have been built. All these schemes could have been named after Sardar Patel. The country would have commemorated his name along with providing food and occupation for people, this aiding development. Now, forget helping the farmers, they have been majorly inconvenienced by this statue. Is this not an insult to the personality of Patel? Would his soul not weep at the fact that farmers have been wronged here? This statue has caused major problems to tribals living in 72 villages. 32 villages have been deeply damaged. Rehabilitation is not complete in 19 villages. Amidst all their cries of protest, the statue has been inaugurated. The statue has divided people at its very base. Can this ever unite the country? Factories owe thousands of crores to sugarcane farmers in the area. Experts feel this money could have been used to help farmers on the banks of Narmada river valley.
The government claims the country will earn this money back with tourism. But how does that happen? Do people begin to visit the statue in hoards soon after? If this was the case, this would have been full of statues and countries could earn their money only through such ventures. China is home to the biggest Buddha statue. It is not even listed in the tourism charter of the country. Even if Sardar’s statue attracts people such as Taj Mahal does, it would take at least 150 years for the country to break even. The only country that made money from this statue is China since this contract gave some work to Chinese workers. This statue is a blot on the personality of Sardar Patel. With this, his towering personality has been reduced to a mere 182 meters by PM Narendra Modi.
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NDA sweeps bypolls to four assembly segments in Bihar
Patna (PTI): The ruling NDA in Bihar on Saturday swept the bypolls to four assembly segments, retaining Imamganj and wresting from the INDIA bloc Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj, receiving a boost ahead of the assembly elections due next year.
Candidates of the Jan Suraaj, floated recently by former political strategist Prashant Kishor with much fanfare, lost deposits in all but one seat, in a clear indication that the fledgling party, despite claims of taking the political landscape in the state by storm, needs to cover much ground.
The biggest setback for the INDIA bloc, helmed by the RJD, came in Belaganj, a seat the party had been winning since its inception in the 1990s, but this time lost to the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the arch-rival of its founding president Lalu Prasad.
The JD(U) candidate Manorama Devi, a former MLC, defeated by a margin of more than 21,000 votes RJD’s Vishwanath Kumar Singh who made his debut from a seat that fell vacant upon election to Lok Sabha of his father Surendra Prasad Yadav, a multiple term MLA.
The margin of victory was greater than the 17,285 votes polled by Mohd Amjad of Jan Suraaj, whom the RJD may have liked to blame for its defeat by causing a split in Muslim votes.
JD(U) national spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, "The people of Bihar deserve kudos for rejecting the negativity of the opposition and reposing their trust in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Under his leadership, the NDA will win more than 200 seats of the 243-strong assembly in 2025."
The RJD also suffered an embarrassing defeat in Ramgarh, where Prashant Kishor’s prediction of the party “finishing third or fourth” came true. The forecast had caused Sudhakar Singh, son of state RJD president Jagadanand Singh, the MP from Buxar who had won the assembly seat in 2020, to threaten that Jan Suraaj cadres in the constituency will be “beaten up with sticks”.
Singh’s younger brother Ajit finished a distant third after BJP winner Ashok Kumar Singh, a former MLA, and Satish Kumar Singh Yadav who fought on a ticket of the BSP, which has little foothold in Bihar.
Jan Suraaj, though, was hardly a factor in Ramgarh, where its candidate Sushil Kumar Singh polled less than four per cent votes.
The BJP also pulled off a stunning victory in Tarari, which falls under the Arrah Lok Sabha seat, currently represented by CPI(ML)’s Sudama Prasad, who had won the assembly segment for two consecutive terms.
CPI(ML) candidate Raju Yadav lost, by a margin of a little over 10,000 votes, to BJP debutant Vishal Prashant, better known as the son of local strongman Sunil Pandey, who was formerly with the JD(U) and had joined the saffron party a few months ago.
Jan Suraaj had initially announced that it was fielding a former Vice Chief of the Army in Tarari but later disclosed that he could not contest because of technical reasons. Its candidate Kiran Singh got less than four per cent votes.
The most respectable performance from Jan Suraaj came in the reserved Imamganj seat where its candidate Jitendra Paswan stood third, polling well over 20 per cent votes.
The seat, however, went to Deepa Kumari, daughter-in-law of Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who defeated RJD’s Raushan Kumar by a slender margin of less than 6,000 votes.
Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, vacated Imamganj earlier this year upon getting elected to Lok Sabha from Gaya.
With the exception of Ashok Singh in Ramgarh, the winners in all the seats shall be making their debut in the state assembly.
