The Rs 1,989 crore statue being built to honour Sardar Vallabhai Patel has taken 3,000 labourers nearly 5 years to complete.
He arrived at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in the city in the evening and headed straight to the Ashram, the former home of Mahatma Gandhi which also served as one of the main centres of India's freedom struggle.
Government offices located in New Delhi's central area, including North Block and South Block, will be closed from 2 pm on Thursday till 9:30 am on Friday in connection with the 'Run for Unity' to be flagged off by Prime Minster Narendra Modi.
The PM spent around 20 minutes with his mother before heading towards Raj Bhavan, where he would be halting for a night.
The Gujarat government on Wednesday banned expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah which allegedly defamed the image of Vallabbbhai Patel, officials in the Chief Minister's Office said.
There is no question of banning the Bajrang Dal if it plays by the rulebook and behaves itself, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said on Friday, as his party's manifesto proposing to outlaw the outfit continues to come under fire from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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.
Dr Singh and Modi will share the stage at a function to inaugurate a museum dedicated to Vallabhbhai Patel's life. The function has been organised by the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, whose chairman is the Union minister of state for mines, Dinsha Patel.
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).
The Time list also includes Zakouma National Park in Chad, Red Sea Mountain Trail in Egypt, Newseum in Washington, The Shed in New York City, the Geosea Geothermal Sea Baths in Iceland, Six Senses Hotel in Bhutan, Leopard Hill in Mara Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya and the Pohoiki in Isaac Hale Beach Park in Hawaii.
Lok Sabha proceedings on Tuesday began in the new Parliament building, located adjacent to the old one, starting a new chapter in the parliamentary history of India.
The Narender Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat had banned Jaswant's book alleging that it defamed the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The Gujarat government, which banned Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Jinnah alleging it was an attempt to tarnish the image of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, has in its notification described it as "highly objectionable and against national interest".
Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Anti-Establishment, wants to play politics without being branded as the typical Indian politician so that he can make his mark in the 2014 general election. While hiding his political manoeuvring, the Aam Admi Party's maverick leader is seeking fresh intervention in the agenda of the nation by agitating on the footpaths of New Delhi, says Sheela Bhatt.
'Sardar Patel's actions must continue to inspire those who have worked for change today and those who aspire to alter the strangling status quo in our national life.'
Indian Navy on Saturday commissioned a new base, INS Sardar Patel, in Porbandar, Gujarat.
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.
Hindu religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj, who is facing first information reports (FIRs) in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra for allegedly using derogatory words against Mahatma Gandhi, remained defiant and said he does not have any remorse for his utterances.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi flagged off 'Run for Unity', which seeks to drum up support for his pet 'Statue of Unity' project, on the 63rd death anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on Sunday.
The way the system works here, it is difficult to think Akbaruddin Owaisi will be ever be punished for uttering those hateful words, laments Tarun Vijay
'The man who decided that a multi-lingual Hyderabad should remain would not have been surprised that Telangana and Seemandhra could not live together as a united state.'
A total of 1,016 candidates -- 664 men and 352 women -- have qualified in the examination and have been recommended by the Union Public Service Commission for appointment to various services.
A BCCI official on Monday confirmed that fans will be allowed to come in for the Test matches in Motera.
According to government officials, the Indian arm of Turner Project Management, which worked on the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa of Dubai, is consultant for the project and construction management.
Rediff takes a look at some of the tallest statues and how tall they stand in comparison.
The Statue of Unity will be double the height of the Statue of Liberty in the USA and five times taller than the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The construction is estimated to cost Rs 2063 crore, and will be completed in four years.
Manprit Juneja cracked a patient 79 as Gujarat scored 232 in their second innings against Punjab on the penultimate day of the Group A Ranji Trophy match at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Valsad on Monday.
Struggling India spinner regained some of the lost touch with a three-wicket haul as Punjab restricted Gujarat to 261 for nine on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match, Valsad on Saturday.
Stating that sports should be kept free of politics, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Friday that the Pakistan cricket team's tour of the country next month should be welcomed.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced an allocation of Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) for building Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's statue in Gujarat.
Modi spoke to the BJP's longest serving president, who is credited with crafting the party's rise through the 90s when it came to power for the first time as the head of coalition governments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and congratulated him.
The Manmohan Singh government has been speaking in far too many voices for some time now. Debate should not degenerate into cacophony, dissent need not turn into turf battles. Perhaps the time has come for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to once again assert his authority. He has been excessively accommodative of ministerial dissidents. May be it's time he cracked the whip.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said the country has to decide if the sweetness of sugarcane will grow or the followers of Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah will cause mischief in the state, in a veiled attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Prakash J slammed a brilliant 99 not out, inclusive of 20 hits to the fence, to steer India to victory in just 13.3 overs after Sri Lanka had scored 186 for eight in their 20 overs.
Priyanka stressed on the importance of the UP polls for the party, calling it a "do-or-die" situation.
Delhi's Indira Gandhi airport and Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji airport handle more than half of India's air traffic.
A wall is being constructed in front of a slum along the road connecting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to Indira Bridge.
The Congress on Wednesday suggested that Jaswant Singh has been handed out poetic justice by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which expelled him today in the wake of his controversial book, projecting Mohammad Ali Jinnah as greater than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. "We had rejected the contents of the book. The BJP has rejected the author himself," All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.
'It is time India withdraws the complaint from the UN and fully integrates the state of J&K into the Indian Union,' recommends Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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