The curious case of Statue of Unity Unbiased Perception

The curious case of Statue of Unity | Unbiased Perception

Since the Statue of unity is created , it has got all the attention which  was expected be it for good reasons or bad , there are right wingers and leftist , there are bloggers and content creators sharing their view in their own ways . So we though why not we also dig some facts, keep things simple and show the people around us  the real picture

We are picking following points for our Analysis

• Cost Factor
• Why it was created
• Why only Sardar Patel was selected

Cost Factor | Statue of Unity

As if now every one has one number in mind that is 3000 Crores , which is more or less is correct however it is a  complete project cost and not for statue .   To begin with the exact cost of the project is 2989 Crores  INR , Out of which The main cost of statue is  1357 Crore ,   657 crores has been kept as reserve as expected cost of maintenance  for next 15 years for the project , 235 crores will be used for 128 rooms hotel, exhibition and convention centre  and 83 crores are sanctioned for the bridge that will connect the project with the main land.

So summary is 1357 crores is used for the creation of statue

We have already seen many Return on Investments(ROI) analysis on TVs  , internet and newspapers but all were looking only financial factors   but tributes, prestige , proud etc cannot be quantified in terms of sheer money

But to give perspective  let us  also try few of our own comparisons.

Current population of india is 1,359,440,375 as on 13^th November 2018 ,  if statue of unity was not created and everyone is india is distributed with this 3000 Crores each one might have got 220 INR per person .  I am sure for 220 Rupees each one could’ve gifted some more soan papdi’s to each other.

Now some of our readers pay taxes on behalf of the whole population of 1359440375 individuals of india , so per our records last updated taxpayer count of india was 6.84 crores,  if this 3000 crores were given to each one of the taxpayers  they might have got 4386 INR each , but these 4386 will be wasted to movies like “Thugs of hindostan”, because no other competitive movie was launched during this hypothetical distribution of taxpayers money.

So we strongly believe that we have saved you more than 5000 bucks and pain that you suffered through “ Thugs of hinodstan”

Give man a Fish , it feed him for today . But teach a man to Fish  and you feed him for lifetime. I guess that’s the move government considered. I am not defending government here but whatever experience I have  any amount allocated to welfare by government  end up into politicians pockets instead of intended audience

Considering Taj Mahal being constructed in today’s world , I am sure no one would’ve supported the idea let alone the cause of creation , Statue of unity was bound to get the criticism but history in future will be in peace with it.

Why it was created | Statue of Unity

Any reason you can think of  be it prestige, be it tourism , be it tribute  , I strongly believe it is justified .  As per my understanding USA is a among new world nations , they don’t have rich history  but india has one.  USA created mount rushmore, statue of liberty  and what not . But one thing which separate USA  from other countries is Patriotism.  They just love their country

India, being culturally rich , has heritage of history but still struggles with Patriotism.  Suddenly apart from Taj mahal we have another monument to boast about , a new brand for India apart from snake charmers, call centers etc.  Now Hollywood movie will no longer show how statue of liberty or Rio statue falling we have our own and 5 times bigger one.  However with this statue there are other factors too that can be considered to explain why it was created.

It was created for generation of Buzz in india and around the world , in which  statue of unity did and exceptional job if you don’t trust be check out google trends of last two weeks  and you will find most searched keywords are “Statue of unity” and “sardar patel”

Buzz created inside india and around the world garnered attention across the globe , suddenly new audience for Sardar patel. For a person like me , I was aware about statue of liberty was got to know how small it was as compared to rest of the statues of the world  and now India has got the title for tallest statue.

Obviously tourist would come and see , though nothing special about it but economically the route they are expected to follow should help so many businesses along , so certainly a master stroke for Gujrat .Upcoming Generations will certainly know about Sarder patel and statue of unity.

Why Sardar Patel ? | Statue of Unity

Sardar Patel was iron man of India, his main role during his era was to unite people and hence the statue of unity but there were other figures too that can be fit for the tallest statue claim  may be Shaheed bhagat singh, Subhash Chandra bose, bhimrao ambedkar , Nehru or even Gandhi may be , if Gandhiji can be on our currency he can be the face of World tallest statue as well. If patriotism was the main concern I believe shahid bhagat singh was far more bigger role model and if inspirational personalities were to be boasted than Dr. B.R. Ambedkar , Swami Vivekanand, Dr. APJ Kalam were absolutely good fits.

India is a secular country however one cannot choose any religious figure or gods faces for a national statue that will do the opposite of unity   than why Sardar Patel Only . Let us decode the biggest question

India has two big political party one in Congress and another one is BJP , Congress has use the “brand Gandhi” for more than Sixty years  and for rest of the case Nehru brand was used, Sardar patel was there in congress but congress never used iron man of india and ignored his contributions . When partition happened BJP was not even in existence  and lets accept the fact RSS was never supported by Sardar Patel.   Now cut to BJP era, now they have everything but no historical role model until Statue of Unity . They played the masterstroke by using a character from history that has far much more weight in terms of respect and contribution towards nation building and was ignored by almost every political party.

Since Sardar patel was part of Congress , so no one is going to dispute the cause and BJP wants to show the world that they are neutral and respect the patriotism  so they Support the brand “Patel”. Shri Narendra Modi was ex. CM of Gujrat , so he did what he promised that he will look after Gujrat and he is still doing it  as a result now BJP has subtly claimed a historical figure as well .

Branding always works , it will work in future as well so kudos to BJP Think Tank and it is a win win for every one

Note:- All these what is written above is the perception of the writer(Rishi )