Today on birth anniversary of iron man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Government of Gujarat along with Prime Minister unveiled his statue in Gujarat. The foundation stone of the project was laid by PM, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. The statue that has been made open for public today is the world’s tallest statue, almost twice the size of Statue of Liberty. While it is a moment of pride for many Indians, the move has been equally criticized by the Indians.
Whopping 3000 crore rupees have been spent to build the statue. While people ask, why not build schools and hospitals with the money, a Quora user Kaustubh Panat shared an opinion which is spot on. Take a look.
Why do we need Statue of Unity as much as we need schools and hospitals?
I think the idea of Statue of Unity is really good.
Answer to your 1’st point: Project has been seen as an extravagant affair, argued with the fact that this much money could be used in providing schools, hospitals and other public projects to people.
Well, quoting such allegations is contradictory with the original reason of the money. The Rs. 2000 crore spent now will bring 10 times more money in future.
The statue of liberty has around 4.3 million visitors in the year of 2014.
Now just imagine.. how much the US govt might be earning from it. How many schools and education centers can be opened if every visitor pays a minim fee of 1$. That is tooooo less!
Now take wave back to the project of Statue of Unity…
This would be the tallest statue in the world. It would definitely attract the visitors across the globe. This will earn lots and lots of money to the government.
If you are daily news reader you would come across that India is already under debt of thousands of crores. So at such crucial time investing in dead assets is very harmful. Building schools is important. But along with that “GAREEB KA PET BHARNA” is also important. This project will open new doors of employment for the maintenance contractors.
So i guess.. We should not connect the issue of Tourism Department to the Department of Education.
So now Statue of Unity will earn you money that can be used for development of Indian economy.
This statue has potential to bring foreign money in Indian economy. We will be able to build 10x schools and hospitals with that revenue. And not only that, every sector will grow with tourism booming. And it will generate huge employment as well.