AHMEDABAD: Indian farmers were urged Thursday to hand over scraps of metal and tools for the world’s tallest statue, as construction began on what promoters hope will be a wonder of the world.
The tribute to Sardar Patel, the first home minister of independent India, is set to be twice the size of the Statue of Liberty and four times higher than Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
The metal structure, a pet project of opposition leader Narendra Modi in his home state of Gujarat, will rise 182 meters from an island in the Narmada river when completed in four years’ time.
Modi laid the foundation stone on Thursday and urged farmers to donate tools which will be melted down and used in the memorial to a politician nicknamed the “Iron Man of India.”
“People come to see the Taj Mahal, flock to America for the Statue of Liberty and France for the Eiffel Tower. Now people from all over the world will come here to see this wonder,” Modi said.
“We have asked farmers from every village in India to give old pieces of their agricultural tools, just 200 grams or 400 grams would do,” he added from the site at Kevadia, 170 kilometers from Gujarat’s biggest city Ahmedabad.
A metal collection effort covering nearly 700,000 villages across the country will begin Thursday and last until Jan. 26 next year, state officials said.
The total cost of the statue is estimated at 25 billion rupees ($300 million) and will be funded with public funds and private donations.
When finished, it will tower by 54 meters over the 128-meter Spring Temple Buddha in China’s Henan province which is currently the world’s tallest statue.
The memorial has strong political undertones as it honors an independence hero who spent his life in the Congress party, the main rival of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national elections next year.
Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, suggested earlier this week that Patel, who is from Gujarat, would have made a better leader than India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
This was a provocative dig at India’s modern-day Gandhi political dynasty, led by Congress chief Sonia and her son Rahul, who are descended from Nehru.
The family has ruled for most of India’s post-independence history.
The theme of national unity represented by Patel is also attractive to Modi as he tries to paint himself as a secular, centrist candidate in the diverse country of 1.2 billion people.
The Hindu nationalist was chief minister of Gujarat in 2002 when religious riots targeting Muslims left at least 1,000 dead and led to accusations he did too little to stop the violence.
One of his ministers was convicted of instigating the carnage, but he has been cleared of wrongdoing in various official investigations.
Patel was a close friend and ally of Mahatma Gandhi, with whom he shared a prison cell, and became the leader of the Congress Party in 1934.
His lasting legacy was forged in his role as India’s first home minister, when he was tasked with molding a united country from hundreds of semi-autonomous princely states and British-era colonial provinces.
Work on the statue will be undertaken by Turner Construction, the company behind the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
India begins construction of world’s tallest statue
India begins construction of world’s tallest statue
Japan’s beloved last pandas leave for China as ties fray
TOKYO: Two popular pandas are set to leave Tokyo for China Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbors fray.
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao are due to be transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
“Although I can’t see them, I came to share the same air with them and to say, ‘Hope you’ll be OK,’” one woman visiting the zoo told public broadcaster NHK.
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy,” have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.
Passionate fans without tickets still turned out at the park, sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to demonstrate their love of the animals.
China has discouraged its nationals from traveling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
“If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts,” and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
“But pandas are special,” he said. “They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money.”
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