The man of action who managed the supreme feat of uniting more than 580 princely states ruled by many eccentric and some wise kings, before we got our freedom .
Many were reluctant to forego thier wealth nd pleasures and did not wish to join with India .
Many of these kings had no qualms in accepting British soverienity and its residents who controlled them as long as thier luxuries were continued .
There were some sensible and honest empires like Travancore but had to content with a powerful and obsessed Diwan ,Sir CP who felt the kingdom should continue ,giving wrong advice to royal family .
Hyderabad nizam wanted to join pakistan .
Junaigadh and the portugese in Goa were taken using the army .
Hari Singh of Kashmir signed his kingdom to India legally though shortly after Pakistani rangers attempted to attack Srinagar .
Each were dealt in different ways with both sticks and sweets but Sardar brought them all under India to sign instruments of acessions to join union of India .
He should have been our first Prime Minister considering his experience and popularity amongst legislators , but an ambitious Nehru used his hold on the Mahatma to make him the first deputy PM and Home minister .
He was asked to unite all princely fiefdoms onto a new country .
Sardar held no grudges ,but finished his given task most efficiently .
He was sidelined by the Nehru dynasty when alive and even his memories were erased from history .
We did read of his contribution but it was not to the extent of his service to the nation .
The nation for decades was mesmerised by the Gandhi dynasty of the Nehru family .
It needed a Narendra singh Modi to unearth the Sardar .
The decision to make a huge statue of the Sardar was naturally met with lot of opposition .
Many wanted to know why a country like India should spend crores for resurrecting a dead hero by erecting a statue out of proportion in size in a God forsaken tribal area difficult to even reach.
and it sounded true then .
There were many ways memories could be preserved instead of spending such millions .
Could a country with so many needs like ours spend huge money on such edifices .
What it needed was hospitals universities schools houses and food for its downtrodden .
Strangely crores were being cheated from our wealth by being spent on these counts .
Most political parties spent extravagantly or gave freebies using public money .
It was these worthies who were crying from rooftops about this wasteful statue .
But Modi as CM of Gujarat in 2013 was sure it would be a remarkable step forwards to the benifit of the nation and today we find he was not wrong .
It would not only correct the wrong done to a great Indian , it would also bring patriotic fervour .
How to erect such a mammoth statue
and why here ?
Again Modiji had the answer .
It would be near the Sardar Sarovam dam a dream for the Gujarat born Patel .
The plan was to make it the biggest statue in the world and it would face the dam.
The Sardar gazing at his dream fulfilled .
The dam too had been delayed for years thanks to the left oriented activists like Medha patkar and Arundathi Roy .
They obstructed it for many years inciting a few tribals .
Today the dam has brought benifit to millions in 3 states and many tribals too .
The next decision was to find the sculptor
Ram Sutar had made a statue of Sardar in Ahmedabad airport .
It was decided to select that statue form but many fold huge in size
Ram was 93 years old but with help of son took responsibility .
The huge statue would be built with iron pillars as its skeleton embossed by copper platings and concrete .
Its structure needed great technical attention as it would stand in an earthqauke prone zone .
It needed to withstand huge winds considering its size of a hill .
Its base feet in sandals was smaller than its body and head hence its center of balance had to corrected .
It would rise to 182 meters ie 597 feet .
while most statues in world were smaller .
The number of seats in Gujarat assembly were 182 which was why it was selected .
An appeal was sent to farmers to donate used iron agricultural equipments to use it for foundation symbolic of getting the iron needed to make iron mans statue from those who toiled the earth from his land .
More than 130 metric tonnes were collected and 103 used to make the foundation
The world wide tender was won by an Indian company Larsen and Toubro to build execute and maintain the statue ,approach bridge ,surroundings for 15 years .
More than 4000 labourers 250 engineers toiled for years .
The copper smelting was done in China shipped in containers and by road to its remote site .
Slowly it grew .
A viewing gallery was planned in around 44 floor approximately in second button from top of sardars coat .
One went up in a high speed lift .
Hgher floors were for maintenance only.
One could go up by escalators or lift to reach Sardars foot .
Everything was disabled friendly
Even the km and half walkway had moving horizontal escalators .
There were many toilets in site something one hardly sees in such places in India .
There was free drinking water booths .
A big AC food court
The base had exhibits museums theater etc
Souvenuir shop
Free shuttle took one to dam butterfly park cactus park ,childrens nutrition park which were surrounding attractions .
Hotels restaurants shopping malls were built .
Artificial illuminated trees on roadside neon lit wide roads transformed the remote place into a fairy land .
In one year more than 2.18 million people visited .
School children were welcomed with discounts so that they learnt our true history
They came in droves.
A laser show at 7pm free for all showed Sardars life and inculcated patriotic fervour .
It has been a huge sucess .
In time the edifice will be surrounded by water for boats to ply around like in statue of liberty .
The whole area is transformed now .
The tallest statue in world is a sucess story indeed .
