Patna,(BiharTimes): To promote Narendra Modi’s name as the prime ministerial candidate deep into the interiors of Bihar the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to collect 250 gm of used iron from farmers of all the villages of Bihar for the proposed Statue of Unity in memory of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel in Gujarat.
Though the BJP leaders may find it extremely difficult to explain as to why are they not building the statue of Mahatma Gandhi––who is the Father of the Nation and also comes from Gujarat––yet the saffron party wants to give a new caste twist to the issue. BJP’s antipathy towards the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his progeny is understandable but why have its leaders ignored Gandhiji, when they could have cashed in on his popularity. By adopting Gandhiji they could easily have propagated that Congress has abandoned him for the Nehru family. But the Mahatma has been ignored by the saffron brigade too.
Some political observers argue that after all Gandhiji was assassinated by an RSS man, so adopting him would not go down well and expose the contradictions within. But then Patel was never soft towards RSS too. In fact it was during his tenure as home minister that RSS was first banned after the assassinaton of Gandhiji.
By the same logic the credit for the unification of the country should go to Nehru too who was the prime minister of the country. Why then give it just to Patel?
But by projecting the Sardar the BJP not only wants to woo the powerful Patel lobby In Gujarat––which felt somewhat disenchanted with Modi in the last Assembly election––but also wants to play its caste card in Bihar and UP.
As the ruling Kurmis of Bihar––as well as of Uttar Pradesh––equates themselves with Patels of Gujarat and many even use this surname it was a much better idea to build the statue of Sardar Patel than Mahatma Gandhi.
No doubt Kurmis––the caste to which Bihar chief minister belongs––along with Koeris are strongly behind the ruling Janata Dal (United) yet a recent survey suggested that a large number of them are extremely upset over the manner in which Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with BJP.
The saffron party in the process not only wants to project the image of Narendra Modi into the interiors of Bihar but at the same time exploit the disenchantment in a section of Nitish’s core vote base of Kurmis and Koeris.
The BJP’s logic behind choosing Sardar Patel may not be acceptable to all. For example state party general secretary, Suraj Nandan Mehta, said that the small pieces of iron tools such as sickles, hoes and hedge clippers have to be collected essentially from farmers because Sardar Patel was considered to be a great leader of farmers. But the Congressmen counter it by stating that Gandhiji was a much better champion of Indian farmers than Patel.
BJP leaders say that since Patel is called as the Iron Man of India, the 182 metre tall statue would be built of iron. But Janata Dal (United) leader and minister, Shyam Rajak, had strongly criticized the decision to build statue of iron as it would soon get rusted. He alleged that BJP is doing a great disservice to Patel by making an iron statue and not that of brass.
It needs to be recalled that former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had on July 25 announced this plan at the party’s Viswashghat (betrayal) Rally at Biharsharif, the headquarters of Nalanda district. Needless to explain Nalanda is the strongest bastion of Kurmis or the Bihari version of Patels in the state.
The exercise to collect iron objects would begin after Hunkar Rally to be held in Patna on October 27. Among others it will also be addressed by Narendra Modi.
Reports say that the giant size statue would be tallest in the world. It would come up at Sadhu Bet, an island near the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
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