With the unveiling of the 28-feet tall statue of legendary freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose under a canopy in India Gate by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi today, one of the last vestiges of the colonial rule of the past will be shed.
The statue will be placed at the same spot where a hologram statue of Netaji was unveiled earlier on January 23 this year by the PM, marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji.
Interestingly earlier the statue of King George V was there which was removed in 1968 with the intention of replacing it with a national hero. Since then the canopy has remained empty till now when Netaji’s statue will be placed there.
The move follows the assertion by the PM Modi during his Independence Day address that India can become a fully developed country only if the Indian mind is fully decolonised.
The Netaji statue has been carved from a monolithic block of granite weighing 280 metric tonnes and following 26,000-man hours of arduous and intense artistic creativity, it was chiselled to create the statue weighing 65 MT.
What makes this statue special is that it has been completely hand sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools by a team of sculptors led by Arun Yogiraj.
Incidentally, a 100 feet long truck with 140 wheels was specially designed to transport this monolithic granite stone from Khammam in Telangana to New Delhi, covering 1,665 kilometres.
Other highlights of the function:
For the next three days the cultural festival will continue till September 11 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. while a special 10-minute drone show on Netaji’s life would be projected at India Gate at 8 p.m. on all the days.
A group of 223 Hindu pilgrims from the Sindh province of Pakistan embarked on a…
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is part of India…
As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues with Kremlin troops being relentless in their…
Taiwan's Ministry of Defence (MND) said it detected seven Chinese military aircraft and five naval…
Security personnel on Sunday morning launched a massive manhunt following a terrorist attack on an…
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that India has "very strongly countered" China…