Both the Congress and the BJP in Gujarat swear by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, but neither the BJP regime here nor the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has so far sanctioned a rupee for the upkeep of the memorial of the Iron Man of India in his home State.
Both the Sardar Patel memorial in the grandiose erstwhile Raj Bhavan building here and the “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Vir Vithhalbhai Patel memorial” at Karamsad that was the ancestral house of the Patel brothers in Anand district, are run by public charitable trusts with generous donations from the people, particularly industrial houses, many of them owned by Patels.
Till about two years ago, the trust running the memorial in Ahmedabad never sought governmental assistance. “We did not need any help from the government because we were, and still are, getting enough public donations for the proper maintenance of the memorial,” trust sources said.
However, some two years ago, it submitted to the Centre a Rs.22-crore project for further development of the memorial. The Centre “agreed in principle” to release Rs.5 crore immediately and the remaining amount in phases. But so far that has not materialised. To the State government, the trust sought only “sanction of some amount, whatever it feels fit.” But nothing has been sanctioned so far. Government sources said the State was only waiting for the Centre to announce its offer and the State would provide the remaining amount to complete the development plan.
The trust, however, did not have to wait for Central or State government to release funds. A Rs.3.5-crore community hall with all modern facilities is nearing completion and is scheduled to be inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil on October 1.
“Funds were never a constraint to carry out the work,” the trust sources said. The bulk of the donations came from Karsanbhai Patel, chairman of the Nirma detergents company, who is also the vice-chairman of the Sardar Patel memorial trust; Gautam Adani of the Adani enterprises, the Surat-based Kanjibhai Patel trust and many others.
But it may not be smooth sailing from here unless the Centre or the State governments sanction funds. Union Minister of State for Small Scale Industries Dinsha Patel himself is the chairman of the trust.
Besides the community hall, the trust has plans to construct a 250-seat conference hall, an art gallery to display paintings and other works on the Sardar by artistes, a museum, a modern library, a Sardar Patel research and study centre, a couple of miniature “ Mughal Gardens” to add to the aesthetic beauty of the memorial, on the lines of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The trust never had an annual maintenance budget for the upkeep of the memorial. “We spend as we receive donations and have so far never felt any shortage of funds to maintain the memorial,” the sources said.
By an order of the State government, the imposing British era building on a seven-acre plot in the posh Shahibaug locality, originally used as the residence of governors, was converted into the Sardar Patel memorial on March 7, 1980, after the Raj Bhavan was shifted to the new State capital of Gandhinagar.
Construction of a memorial for the Sardar was a long-felt need. The Janata Front government in the State headed by Babubhai Jashbhai Patel constituted a search committee under the chairmanship of the former Union Minister, U.N. Dhebar, which identified the erstwhile Raj Bhavan as suitable for conversion into the memorial. The government formed a public charitable trust for the management of the memorial.
But before the trust could start work on the memorial, the Janata Front government was toppled and in the next Assembly elections, the Congress came to power. The Congress government wanted the trust to hand back possession of the building and promised to locate a suitable site for the memorial. The trust, of which Babubhai Patel had by then become chairman, challenged the government order in the Gujarat High Court.
The construction of the memorial virtually came to a standstill. In 1990, the High Court ruled in favour of the trust and the memorial came into existence in the building, which once inspired Rabindranath Tagore, to write his famous short story, “Hungry Stones” that was translated into many languages.
For the present, the Patel memorials in Ahmedabad and Karamsad, which also is run by a public charitable trust headed by the Mumbai-based industrialist, Ashok Patel, are reasonably well maintained, but the moot question is: how long unless the governments step in with regular funding?
