The Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected a plea filed by Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi against Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment project, after the state government assured that it will "not touch" three key attractions situated in the one-acre area.
The 182-metre 'Statue of Unity', being built at Sadhu Bet in Narmada district, is slated to be inaugurated by Modi on Patel's birth anniversary on October 31.
After the public spat over the legacy of Sardar Patel between Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Modi will lay the foundation stone for the statue on Thursday.
Decreasing the height of Shivaji's statue to make Sardar Patel's statue look taller is 'narrow and distorted mindset', the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana.
Rediff takes a look at some of the tallest statues and how tall they stand in comparison.
The state government had earlier said the 182-metre tall statue will be inaugurated on Sardar Patel's birth anniversary on October 31 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'By the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, they moved back to the BJP almost totally and later their backing helped us win the local body elections.'
The Congress won 77 seats or 42% of seats in the 2017 polls. How then can Gujarat be called a BJP bastion, asks Sanjeev Nayyar.
'I am a human and humans tend to commit mistakes. To ensure that the party does not suffer due to my mistakes, I resign from the party, whose forgiveness I seek'
Soon after his arrival in the morning at the Ahmedabad airport for a two-day Gujarat visit, Modi directly reached Patel's residence in Gandhinagar and offered floral tributes to the veteran politician, who headed the first BJP-led government in the state in 1995.
Despite criticism from the ruling party and Twitterati, Spandana remained defiant.
At 182 metres (392 ft), the proposed Sardar Patel Monument, coined as 'Statue of Unity', will be double the height of New York city's famed 'Statue of Liberty' (93 metres), five times the height of the statue of 'Christ The Redeemer' in Rio de Janeiro (39.6 metres) and one and a half times of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (122 metres) itself.
India's largest oil firm IOC will build the nation's first 'green hydrogen' plant at its Mathura refinery, as it aims to prepare for a future catering to the growing demand for both oil and cleaner forms of energy. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has drawn a strategic growth path that aims to maintain focus on its core refining and fuel marketing businesses while making bigger inroads into petrochemicals, hydrogen and electric mobility over the next 10 years, its chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said. The company will not set captive power plants at all its future refinery and petrochemical expansion projects and instead use the 250 MW of electricity it produces from renewable sources like solar power, he told PTI in an interview.
Ram V Sutar, 89, has already created more than 200 distinct statues, many of them massive. Now, he is a leading contender for the commission to produce the world's largest statue: A 597-foot tall rendering of Sardar Patel, an independence leader who played a crucial role in uniting India's fractious states.
'The Statue of Unity is wasteful expenditure, but engineering-wise they have chosen the right place and correct spot. It is a simple statue and well executed.' 'Here, the government has chosen a wrong spot. They have chosen a wrong design.' 'The Shivaji Maharaj statue is holding a sword and the length of that sword is 48 metres, which is equivalent to a 16-storey building!'
Bollywood celebrates 75 years of Independence by telling us what freedom means to them, and posting interesting pictures on social media.
The prime minister also suggested a single voters' list for Lok Sabha, assembly and panchayat polls, saying separate lists are a waste of resources.
He blamed policies of the Congress-led governments for the Kashmir issue remaining unresolved.
'All statue-building is an exercise in hubris, but Mr Adityanath's enterprise begs a question: Can a state with rampant child malnutrition and 325 children dying in a Gorakhpur hospital afford Rama's benediction?' asks Sunil Sethi.
He also asked them to stay away from limelight and go beyond their routine jobs to establish their identity. "The turn at which the country stands today... the role of bureaucrats like you is of minimum government and maximum governance. You have to ensure that your interference in common people's lives is reduced and that they get empowered," he said.
The budget for the 'Shiv Smarak' has risen 35 times since it was first conceived.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the target date for achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending with petrol has been advanced by five years to 2025 to cut pollution and reduce import dependence.
Iltija Mufti, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehobooba Mufti, also challenged the assertion that "political dynasties" had destroyed Kashmir over the years.
Shah also said Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's unfulfilled dream of integrating Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country was accomplished on August 5 when Article 370 and 35A were repealed.
His statement comes two days after Pakistan's Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry admitted his country's role in the Pulwama attack during a debate in their National Assembly (Parliament).
"There is a recent trend of people expecting that everything has to be done by the government," he said.
The 182-metre statue of Vallabhbhai Patel will be dedicated to the nation on his birth anniversary in Narmada District of Gujarat.
In his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' radio broadcast, Modi wished people on Dussehra and said that with various festivals coming up, they need to show patience and follow health guidelines in celebrating these auspicious occasions during the COVID times.
Modi said it was Patels' timely intervention which helped save J-K from "aggression".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he regrets not being able to learn the world's oldest language Tamil during his long political innings as a chief minister and prime minister.
The Statue of Unity the prime minister is building in Gujarat is a disgraceful waste of resources that does nothing for India except add a big fat bill, says Mitali Saran.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Tuesday declined Narendra Modi's invitation for an event on Sardar Patel, suggesting that the Gujarat chief minister's motives were not sincere and the name of the great leader was being misused for partisan political agenda.
The foundation stone of the dam was laid on April 5, 1961 by the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. However, it took 56 years to complete its construction.
Even while the union budget may not have announced many direct schemes for Gujarat, the state has been a major beneficiary under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first 100 days in office.
He now claims that his submission before the SC was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.
'The cold weather of Delhi was thawed away completely by the warmth of the prime minister,' says Kshitija Desai.
'The prospect is of a self-confident and self-sustaining India will make it a more effective player in the global arena,' External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar points out delivering the Sardar Patel Lecture-2020: India and the Post-Covid World.
The President's rule imposed in undivided Jammu and Kashmir was revoked on Thursday following the state's bifurcation into Union Territories, but the central rule will continue for an indefinite period through the Lieutenant Governor (LG) in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
SpiceJet, IndiGo, Jet Airways, Alliance Air, and Turbo Aviation are among the operators that have bagged the routes in the third round.
'Most Indians know very little about Patel which is a great shame.'
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