Why India’s tallest leader would have led the struggle against the Narmada Project
Built on Adivasi land by wrecking the environment, the Sardar Sarovar Dam and Statue of Unity are hollow symbols dressed up as a tribute to Vallabhbhai Patel.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
On October 31, the birth anniversary for freedom fighter and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s most powerful leaders attend a grand celebration at the Sardar Sarovar Dam where the world’s tallest statue is located: the 182-metre-tall Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel.
The reservoir, brimming with water, promises a bountiful future for Gujarat. Hundreds attend the event, most of them government employees.
At the same time, the police and security forces keep Adivasi leaders, citizens and social workers away from the event – some are even placed under house arrest till the function is over.
Not a word is uttered about how the massive, and expensive, project has displaced people across three states, many of them Adivasis, devastated lives, submerged forests and even affected “Maa Narmada” – as Prime Minister Narendra Modi refers to the Narmada River.
The truth is obscured by the well-lit, decorated statue and publicised tourism, the darkness overshadowed by the advertisement of a “dedipyaman”, or glittery, Kevadia.
As one of India’s tallest leaders, Patel was instrumental in bringing together a secular and united country. During the independence struggle, he led a peaceful movement of farmers in Bardoli in Gujarat against taxation imposed by the colonial British rulers.
A giant statue, built by infrastructure giant L&T at an estimated Rs 3,000 crore, by thousands of labourers...
