In a shocking incident, the Statue of Unity has been found guilty of selectively editing and putting up a video of a Gujarat Congress MLA in a lame attempt to glorify Gujarat Government.
Naushad Solanki, a Congress MLA from Dasada constituency went to visit the Statue of Unity recently. Being an MLA, the officials asked him to give a video testimony. Naushad told Vibes of India, I am shocked to see my testimony bitterly changed. Where ever I used the word Nehru has been simply cut. These cheap tactics of the Gujarat government are damning, he said.
The BJP government in Gujarat has always glorified Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and even hijacked it from Congress. The art of blaming Nehru for all Indian maladies also has its roots in Gujarat.
Naushad Solanki in his original video said, “As I am standing here at the Statue of Unity, a 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Patel, I am immensely proud that the foundation stone of developing this dam was first laid by our former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1960s. The dam was built without any state-of-the-art technology.”
“Then our current PM Narendra Modi saw a dream and here we are standing at the Statue of Unity, as a proud Indian and Gujarati on the footsteps of the world’s tallest statue and a wonderful support staff to guide us. I would appeal all to come and visit this place and ensure you have at least two days of staycation planned,” said Solanki.
However, the official video put up by the Statue of Unity conveniently dropped, Nehru’s name. In the edited video, the script went as follows, “As I am standing here at the Statue of Unity, a 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Patel. I am feeling extremely proud. I am taking home an experience of my lifetime. Our current PM Narendra Modi saw a dream and here we are standing at the Statue of Unity. I am feeling like a proud Indian and Gujarati as I visited the world’s tallest statue and met the wonderful support staff. I would appeal all to come and visit this place and ensure you have at least two days of staycation planned.”
Interestingly, on February 4, 1948, in a communique issued by the Central government, it said it was banning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ‘to root out the forces of hate and violence that are at work in our country and imperil the freedom of the Nation and darken her fair name.’
This ban was imposed by India’s first Home Minister Sardar Patel, 73 years ago, in the wake of the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.
Cut to 2021, the Narendra Modi government and the Sangh have been trying to claim Patel’s legacy and seem to have forgotten that the ‘Iron Man’ was a staunch critic of the Sangh. This time, the Modi government makes yet another attempt to claim Patel’s legacy, by tweaking or editing a video of MLA, Dasada Constituency Gujarat Naushad Solanki, clearly showing how the name ‘Jawaharlal Nehru’ is a bad word in Gujarat.
It is to be noted that the claim to Patel’s legacy comes from a Sangh and RSS that was banned for a year by Patel himself. The then Home Minister and the Iron Man of India Patel had written in a communique, “All their speeches were filled with communal poison. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji”.
The ban on RSS was revoked on July 11, 1949, after the then RSS chief MS Golwalkar agreed to make certain promises as conditions for revoking the ban.
