Narendra Modi unveils 'Statue of Unity': In one sweep, PM ejects Congress to make Sardar Patel BJP's 'own'

The fact that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has been dusted off from the record book and refurbished and revitalised as an unparalleled icon of India’s freedom struggle goes to the credit of Narendra Modi and the BJP. Before he laid the foundation for the world’s tallest statue of India’s first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on 31 October, 2013, Narendra Modi, used to keep a small-scale prototype of the proposed statue on the desk in his office. The fact that Patel has been dusted off from the record book and refurbished and revitalised as an unparalleled icon of India’s freedom struggle goes to the credit of Modi and the BJP. In his 50-minute speech today, Modi combined his political objectives quietly deftly by emphasising on the ‘India is eternal’ theme to the appropriation of other national and regional icons of society.