Sardar memorial faces Modi apathy

Ahmedabad, August 26: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the self- proclaimed Chhota Sardar, was quick to ban Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah for its references tarnishing Sardar Patel’s image.

But the truth is successive Modi governments in the state haven’t spent a paisa on the upkeep or development of the Sardar Patel memorial in Ahmedabad, which was set up in 1980 by a Congress- government led by Babubhai Patel.

Worse, despite Modi trying to appropriate the political legacy of the Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel’s memory is still being kept alive by his own partymen.

Congressman and Union minister of state for small- scale industries Dinsha Patel, who heads the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society ( SVPMS), claims Modi had promised money but never did anything for the memorial. He said Patel’s memorial should be a world- class research hub like the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.

” We have not got any help from the state government. This when Modi had called me last year and promised to support the SVPMS. Modi reneged on his promise to help the society. Till date, we have not heard from him on this again,” Dinsha said on Tuesday.

All that the trust got from any BJP government was a paltry Rs 7 lakh – that too from Modi’s rival Keshubhai Patel.

” We were given a corpus fund of Rs 7 lakh to run the society when Keshubhai was the chief minister,” said Dinsha.

Dinsha runs the memorial with contributions from industrialists. He even toured the state to collect money.

” Three years ago, I took out the Sardar yatra from Karamsad to Somnath. I raised Rs 29 lakh from people, who made contributions towards the memorial,” he said.

Gujarat BJP spokesperson I. K. Jadeja refused to explain why the government hasn’t shown any interest in the Sardar memorial.

” The party feels the work on the memorial should go on. You need to speak to the government for the details,” he said.

In 2000, the SVPMS had drawn up a plan for the development of the memorial. About two years ago, the society approached both the state and the Centre for monetary aid of Rs 18 crore.

Earlier this year, the society reminded the Centre and Gujarat government of its plea with a revised plan of Rs 22 crore.

” We are developing two gardens and a community hall at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore; a conference room and an art gallery,” Dinsha said, adding that the Union government recently agreed to sanction Rs 17 crore for the memorial development plan.

” Funds are not a problem because our president has been raising money and many state industrialists have been generously helping us,” SVPMS secretary Prabhakar Khamar said. He claimed the society has not got anything from the state government.

Minister for cultural affairs Fakir Waghela didn’t know why the memorial is being neglected or what exactly is being planned for it. ” I just learnt about the Centre’s decision. I’ll look into this and give you the feedback on the government’s decision tomorrow,” he said.

Spread over seven acres of land in the posh Shahibaug area, the memorial is a historical building. The Motishahi Palace, which was turned into the memorial in 1980, was built during Mughal emperor Shahjahan’s tenure as Ahmedabad governor in 1618.

Rabindranath Tagore lived in the palace for six months in 1878 and the building served as the residence of Gujarat governor for some years after the birth of Gujarat state in 1960.

The memorial has a library that boasts of about 10,000 books, correspondence of Sardar Patel, documents relating to the merger of princely states into India and the leader’s other memorabilia.

The library, according to Khamar, has only four research projects to its credit – three by PhD scholars of Gujarat Vidyapith and one by a retired professor of the Gujarat University.

” Researchers from all over the country visit our library.”

—Agencies