While Narendra Modi’s ambitious, politically loaded `2,000-crore project of the world’s tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Parel in Gujarat is still in the making, his top rival in the quarrel of governance models, Nitish Kumar, has quietly unveiled a life-size statue of the Iron Man in his home district of Nalanda.
In what is seen as a subdued message from Bihar’s ruling JD(U) to the state’s Opposition BJP over its contentious alacrity to collect iron from Nalanda for the Gujarat statue, chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar unveiled the national icon’s statue at a college in Biharsharif on Saturday. Although this statue, erected on the premises of the town’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel College, has no claims to match the Gujarat chief minister’s 182-metre-tall dream project called “Statue of Unity”, JD(U) leaders believe Mr Kumar has performed sort of a “silent political coup” in Bihar in the wake of what they termed as the BJP’s ongoing efforts to divide the JD(U)’s robust support base in Nalanda.
The BJP had kicked off its campaign in Bihar to collect iron for the Gujarat statue in August by asking farmers of Nalanda district to contribute iron liberally in whatever form — sickles, hoes, hedge-clippers, spades and shovels — that would be transported to Bharuch, where Mr Modi has planned the Patel monument. The JD(U) was so petrified by apprehensions of the BJP making a dent in its support base in Nalanda that such fears finally led Mr Kumar’s government to snub the Gujarat government’s invitation for 126 farmers from Bihar to attend the three-day Vibrant Gujarat Global Agriculture Summit in Gandhinagar slated between September 9 and 11.
Significantly, as Mr Kumar was unveiling the modest Patel statue in Biharsharif, Mr Modi was taking a jibe at him in his speech in Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh. Without naming Mr Kumar but obviously referring to his demand before the Centre to grant special state status to Bihar, Mr Modi said that some governments have a habit of going to Delhi and crying for help.
“I am privileged to unveil this statue of Sardar Patel, whose remarkable organising capability had impressed Mahatma Gandhi,” said Mr Kumar in Biharsharif.