Narendra Modi has recently unveiled the Statue of Unity and it seems some of the world countries are not happy with it.
In a statement that might generate controversy in the hours to come, British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Bone has criticized the huge amount of money spent on construction of the ‘Statue Of Unity’. Peter said India had received over £1 billion in aid from Britain between the year 2012 and 18, and therefore called the huge money spent on the statue as “total nonsense”.
“To take £1.1billion in aid from us and then at the same time spend £330 million on a statue is total nonsense and it is the sort of thing that drives people mad. What it proves is that we should not be giving money to India. It is up to them how they spend their money but if they can afford this statue, it is clearly a country we should not need to be giving aid to,” said Peter Bone.
“What it proves is that we should not be giving money to India. It is up to them how they spend their money but if they can afford this statue, then it is clearly a country we should not need to be giving aid to”, he added.
Not just Peter Bone, but British media also criticized India over the same issue. In an article published by The Daily Mail, in which it criticised India’s decision to spent such huge money for the statue, it wrote that official figures show that in the 56 months it took to construct the 330 million pound Statue of Unity, UK taxpayers donated 1.17 billion pounds to India.
“As the cash rolled in from Britain, the Indian authorities poured billions of rupees into building the 597-foot tall bronze likeness of Sardar Patel, one of the heroes of India’s independence movement”, the article said.
The statue, of India’s first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel, is said to be the world’s tallest, standing at 182 metres (almost 600 feet) and cost around Rs. 2,989 crores to build.