“This is a very positive step. First the (construction of the) dam, now the statue, this will change the fate of this region,” said 63-year-old Farooq Memon, who was displaced to Jetpur from his village in Kevadia for the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, in 1993. Twenty-five years later, he made it a point to attend the inauguration of the world’s tallest statue dedicated to India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. “I wouldn’t have missed this opportunity at any cost. Looking at the statue, standing so tall, it makes me feel proud,” Memon said. Memon is among the many such local residents in and around Narmada district who attended the inaugural ceremony “with a sense of pride”. Apart from the local residents, 200 Gujaratis from across 20 states also attended the unveiling ceremony. Read | Gujarat: Villagers praise road works, some ‘hired’ to work at statue site Sardar Patel had supervised the merger of more than 550 princely states into the Indian union, which included Hyderabad. Exactly 70 years ago, Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan was forced to merge his princely state with India. Crediting the same, Mahesh Patel, president of Shri Gujarati Pragati Samaj in Hyderabad, said, “We have lived in Hyderabad for 48 years now. But we have families from Gujarat settled in Hyderabad for over a century. Before Independence, a few Gujarati families had taken permission from the Nizam to set up their businesses here in the city. They soon settled in Sahukari Karwaan close to the Golconda fort and since that day, this settlement has become a Gujarati settlement in Hyderabad. Today that settlement has a population of over 2.5 lakh. We feel that such a tribute is a must for the man who kept us united.” SS Sarvanan, an MLA from Madurai South constituency in Tamil Nadu, attended the event along with 15 other NRGs from across Tamil Nadu. “We feel privileged to have been invited for this event. In 2009, Narendra Modi had identified us in Tamil Nadu for the first time. He united us in Tamil Nadu like Sardar Patel united the entire nation,” Sarvanan said. “During that time when the infamous Ghazani Mohammed invaded Northern India from Afghanistan, which included parts of Saurashtra, a few families migrated to south to escape from the series of invasions. They then settled in Tamil Nadu. Today that number has reached to a population of 20 lakh,” he added. Also read | Statue of Unity: Nearly 200 protesters held from Narmada, nearby tribal districts A husband and wife duo flew down from Andaman and Nicobar Islands to attend the event. Radhakrishna Dave said, “Being invited (to the event) makes us happy. We believe that this tribute should have been given much before.” Rakesh Joshi, a businessman in Mumbai, said, “We are very soon going to start bus services from Mumbai to Statue of Unity, exclusively for the non-residential Gujaratis. We will initially start with one trip every month and soon increase it to two depending on the response.”
