G Kishan Reddy, the Union Culture Minister, said on Wednesday that the project to build the Statue of Equality, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated in Hyderabad last week, started more than 8 years back, when the Congress was in power both at the Centre and in the state.He pointed out that the project preceded Modi’s call for Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant policy.
Reddy was responding to a jibe at the policy from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi said in a tweet that the 216-feet statue of 11th-century saint Ramanujacharya was made in China. Gandhi tweeted, ‘New India’ is China-nirbhar [China-reliant].’
Gandhi’s tweet came followed reports that major work on the statue had been done in China and that it had been brought to India in 1,600 pieces. The installation took about 15 months.
The statue’s funds were raised privately, according to Reddy, with no financial support from the Centre. Gandhi’s comment, he added, ‘only exposes his own ignorance and shallowness.’ ‘By blabbering without knowing facts, he [Gandhi] continues to sink and reduce his party to dust,’ according to Reddy.
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