Historic Gandhi statue unveiled at Britain's Parliament Square

[Hindustani78]

Arun Jaitley arrives in UK for talks, Gandhi statue unveiling | Zee News
Last Updated: Friday, March 13, 2015 - 16:01

London: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday arrived here for his first official visit and began his two-day tour with a bilateral meeting over breakfast with UK Chancellor George Osborne at his office.


The two ministers are scheduled to address a wide range of topics to further strengthen India-UK ties and more specific issues likely to be on the agenda include the Narendra Modi-led government's commitment towards addressing concerns around retrospective taxation, in the backdrop of UK-based Cairn Energy's dispute over a USD 1.6 billion tax bill.

"The bilateral meeting with Mr Osborne will be followed by a broader meeting involving Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Prime Minister Cameron's Indian Diaspora Champion Priti Patel," a spokesperson for the UK Treasury department said.

A meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron is planned for tomorrow and likely to take place before the official unveiling ceremony for a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Parliament Square.

"It is with great pleasure that I have accepted Prime Minister Cameron's invitation to attend the inauguration of the new statue of Gandhi in Parliament Square in London," Jaitley said.

Jaitley will also hold a meeting with leading institutional investors?at the London Stock Exchange (LSE)?when he heads to the city's financial district to also launch a new branch of the Union Bank of India later on Friday.

The senior BJP leader is also scheduled to address a gathering of business chiefs and politicians on 'Investment Opportunities in India' at an event involving the Federation Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) delegation which includes FICCI president and Bharat Hotels chairperson Jyotsna Suri, Rajan Bharati Mittal of Bharti Enterprises and Neeraj Kanwar of Apollo Tyres, among others.

He will end his first official day in the UK with a more informal gathering organised by the Indian Diaspora group, NRI Foundation, at the Taj Hotel in central London.

PTI

 

[Steve781]

Gandhi statue would be good if it were just to make a gesture but it sets a bad precedent to do it for commercial reasons. Will a future government decide to put up a statue of mass murderer Chairman Mao?

 

[he-man]

mass murderer Chairman Mao

@ChineseTiger1986
@Chinese-Dragon

 

[Steve781]

@ChineseTiger1986
@Chinese-Dragon

What are you, the school tattletale or something?

 

[he-man]

What are you, the school tattletale or something?

Just a petty war monger

 

[Hindustani78]

Historic Gandhi statue unveiled at Britain's Parliament Square | Zee News
Last Updated: Saturday, March 14, 2015 - 19:55

London: A historic bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled today at the Parliament Square here in a rare honour bestowed by the government in Britain whose colonial regime he had overthrown by his non-violent campaign.


Gandhi's 9-foot statue was unveiled jointly by British Prime Minister David Cameron and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as chants of "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram", a popular bhajan that was the Father of the nation's favourite, reverberated in the air.

A galaxy of political leaders were present at the event along with Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan and Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi at the ceremony.

Gandhi is the first Indian and the only person never to have been in a public office to be honoured with a statue at the Square. The statue stands exactly opposite Britain's Houses of Parliament in the Palace of Westminster and adjacent to iconic leaders like anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.

Gandhi's statue also has Britain's war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill for company, an irony given the ex-premier's dismissive thoughts of someone he described as a "half naked fakir".

The statue depicts the leader of the Indian national movement wrapped in a shawl to shield himself from the London cold during his last visit to the British capital in 1931.

"By putting Gandhi in this square, we are giving him an eternal home in our country. The man who turned the politically unimaginable into the politically inevitable, whose work in South Africa paved the way for Mandela. A man whose doctrine of Satyagraha became the inspiration for civil rights movement across the world," Cameron said.

"This inspirational man worked out who he was and what he stood for right here in Britain...If Gandhi could have lived anywhere in the world outside India, he said it would have been London. We should be proud of that. And we are proud of him," he said.

The Premier said the statue celebrates the "incredibly special" friendship between the world's oldest democracy and its largest.

Jaitley, invited to the UK especially for the unveiling, said the statue was a tribute to the British sense of civility that they now choose to honour someone who was conventionally regarded as their adversary.

"Mature nations transcend bitterness and acrimony. In Parliament Square there is also a statue of Sir Winston Churchill, arguably the man who opposed Gandhi most resolutely. Some would detect an irony in the great Prime Minister sharing a public space with the man he once decried as a 'half-naked fakir'," Jaitley said.

"May be there is irony but even Churchill would have acknowledged that the resolve, determination and even cunning he showed in standing up to a mighty military machine that threatened the very existence of a proud and free people was replicated by Gandhi in his seemingly unequal battle against the world's mightiest Empire. What will link Churchill and Gandhi together is their strength of character," Jaitley said.

He highlighted that it is a greater tribute to Britain to recognise Gandhi's contributions and choose to place the "seditious, half-naked fakir" next to his one-time nemesis, Churchill and next to the man the Indian iconic leader inspired, Nelson Mandela.

"Nobody embodies the deep and enduring connections between the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy as well as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi -- the Mahatma -- whose statue is being unveiled in Parliament Square today," he said.

"Gandhiji will find himself set permanently in stone very close to the place he occupied transiently, in flesh and blood, on his first night in London more than 125 years ago," he added.

Gandhi's struggle to break Britain's imperial hold over India and to force the world's oldest democracy to create the world's largest one are the stuff of history and legend, Jaitley said.

The sculptor, Philip Jackson, described his creation as an important symbol in the global fight against terror.

"We live in an age where terrorism and acts of random violence are used in an attempt to effect change. Gandhi's sculpture reminds us all that great change can be achieved peacefully and without violence," said the well-known British figurative artist.

NRI economist and founder of the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, Lord Meghnad Desai, described the unveiling as "great occasion for India, UK and the world."

"Gandhi belongs to the whole world but has now found a home in the centre of London, a city which he loved. Let everyone come from everywhere and see for themselves Gandhi in Parliament Square in London," Desai, who was behind the 1-million pound global fund-raising efforts for the statue, told PTI.

The move to install Gandhi's statue was announced during an official UK ministerial visit last year and donors have included leading Indian-origin businessmen like steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and his family and Bajaj Auto chief Rahul Bajaj.

The sculpture is aimed as a focal point for commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's return to India from South Africa to start India's struggle for freedom, as well as the passing of 70 years since his death in 2018, and the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2019.

PTI

Amitabh Bachchan makes a speech next to a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson before it was unveiled in Parliament Square, London.

A new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson is unveiled by India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, watched by, Amitabh Bachchan, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in Parliament Square, London.

A new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson is unveiled by India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, watched by, Amitabh Bachchan, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in Parliament Square, London.

British Prime Minister David Cameron sits on the stage next to Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan during the unveiling ceremony for a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson in Parliament Square, London.

A new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson stands on display after it was unveiled in Parliament Square, London. The bronze sculpture stands 9ft-high (2.75m) and will provide a focal point for commemorations of the 70th anniversary of Gandhi's death in 2018.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi shake hands beneath a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson, after it was unveiled in Parliament Square, London.

Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi makes a speech next to a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi by British sculptor Philip Jackson after it was unveiled in Parliament Square, London.

 

[Srinivas]

Nice gesture from UK !

 

[Aepsilons]

A great decision on the British.

 

[Desi Guy]

Britishers honouring their double agent in India