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Analysis | Share This Page | |||||||||||||||||||||
Modi’s Proposed Statue of Unity! |
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by Dr. Rajinder Puri |
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Concluding his first public rally in Rewari after being anointed Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP, Mr. Narendra Modi appealed to his audience to donate pieces of iron from each village in the state to be used for constructing his proposed Statue of Unity on the sea coast of Gujarat. Mr. Modi wants similar donations of iron pieces from each village in each state across the nation in honour of Sardar Vallabhai Patel who will symbolize unity in the proposed statue. Mr. Modi has declared his intention of constructing the tallest statue in the world, taller than America’s Statue of Liberty, in honour of Sardar Patel.
This writer has serious objection to the proposal. Sardar Patel was undoubtedly a very great man, as were Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Patel performed great service to the nation by unifying the princely states of India after Independence. But though these great leaders did great things for the nation they also committed unforgivable errors the consequence of which continue to haunt our nation.
With just over 1000 people killed in Punjab through communal riots engineered by the British administration immediately after Lord Mountbatten became India’s Viceroy, and about 12000 killed in Bihar and Bengal over a period of two years, these leaders violated their solemn pledge to the people of India by accepting Partition. Gandhi on the fateful day, June 3, 1947 when the Congress formally accepted Partition, conveniently observed his ‘day of silence’.
In what manner then might Sardar Patel symbolize unity? After two lawyers from Gujarat, Gandhi and Jinnah, and two aristocrats from Uttar Pradesh, Nehru and Liaquat Ali, butchered and cut asunder Punjab and Bengal displaying their ignorance about the ground realities in these states, people today should display some sensitivity towards the sentiments of provinces where over a million people were slaughtered and over ten million rendered homeless due to the follies of these leaders. Therefore this writer would like to remind Mr. Narendra Modi and many others from different parts of India that they may have their history and may choose to honour whom they wish. The peoples of Punjab and Bengal have their own history and their own memories to recall. Congress leaders today may be the best in the land. They are welcome to govern India. But the Congress Party as Imperial Britain’s instrument to partition India deserves to be buried. Let Congress leaders reinvent themselves into a new organization. After all, this demand merely echoes the last wish of the most revered Congress icon, Mahatma Gandhi, on the day before he died.
Mr. Modi is welcome to construct his Statue of Unity. The people of Punjab and Bengal might seek their own way of responding to history. |
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16-Sep-2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
More by : Dr. Rajinder Puri | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Views: 1451 Comments: 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Comments on this Article
Mann 10/23/2013 14:57 PM
sanjay 09/19/2013 00:32 AM
Dinesh Kumar Bohre 09/18/2013 15:35 PM
Paul Sayal 09/17/2013 20:03 PM
abhigyan chatterjee 09/17/2013 07:50 AM
pranlal sheth 09/16/2013 22:13 PM
pranlal sheth 09/16/2013 21:52 PM |
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