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NYC-WTC_000135666 9TSESZISTAT OL pSE9 469 ZIZ°ONI SINULINSNOD SWUL dd £8:ST 2a, 97 dos cruiTinncal Vol. 26/No. 36; September 7, Sardar Vaitabhbhai Patel Story behind installation of Sardar's statue by Prashauth Lakhihal Fords, NJ: The 21-foot-tall statue of Sardar Valtabhbhai Patel - a revered freedom fighter hom Gujarat - whose auguration created an unfore- seen Stir in political circles hack hame - was installed in a quiet function on August 23 at the Roval Albert Palace here. "This is only an imstall- ation....formatl inauguration will be done on October 31, Sardar Patel’s birthday,” said Albert Jassani, president, Fed- eration nf Indian iati in the ‘Fri-State area. The $250,000 project of gran- tliose ideas was sealed-dawn considerably and its costs mu not even teach half its original senpe. 704% be As per the original blueprint, a chartered pkine was supposed to fly India’s freedom fighters who worked along with Sardar Patel to New Jersey on the oc- casion of the statue's inaugura- tion. Also, former President Bill Clinton was expected to be present at the occasion. On top of this, India’s Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani had accepted the invitation to formally inaugurate the statue. However, Advani’s planned visit jammed the grand wheel of plans. Actually, it was a play of individual egos that per- suaded Advani to restrict iis abroad visit to the UK alone. As per fassaui's camp insiders, the bigwigs tn the Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party were unhappy with the fact that Jassani alune would have hogged the mileage out ° of this tall stlec. iF Advaai had” actually unveileel the statue, jassani would indeed have scored] a major scvop in tis term as the president of the Federa- tion of Indian American Asso- ciations. The OFBJP atut others envi- ous of Jassani - a Gujarati Khoja Muslim - brought the statue into the vortex of communal politics and attributed under- Continued on page 19 Story behind installation of Sardar's statue Continued from page i orld connections to Jassani, claimed his friends, on the con- dition of anonymity. Dr. Mukund Mody, who is the founding president of OF BJP. denied that anybody associated with the OFBJP was against Advani's visit. “[t is not 2 fair” allegation. We were fully sup- portive of Advani's visit as we firmly believed that. the statue is a great honor to Sardar Patel,” added Mody who claimed that he was cooperating fully to bring Advani here. However, Mody said, he had suggested to Jassani and his as- sociates that it would be better to postpone the inauguration to October 31 as it would give enougl: time to arrange high- powered mectings for Advani in Washington DC." Since it was Advani’s first visit to the US alter be was elevated as the Deputy Prime Minister, Mody said, the OFBJP wanted it ta be high-profile. “Also, same of Jassani's friends made it sound to be a FIA function. But it seemed to be Jassani‘s private function to inaugurate the statue,” Mody said. All semblance of'a community's cifort ts honor who many see as the ‘Bismarck of India’ was removed when the reception committee set up for this pur- pose carlier this year was dis- sulvect. The staius of the Sardar Patel Foundation that had es- tablished the committee com- prising virtually the who's whe of Indian Anierican community in the Tristate itself is question- able, said Ramesh Patel, chair- man of the National Federation of Indian American Associa- tions, Patel faction. Although the reception com- mittee was dissolved due to un- disclosed reasons, the project continued under Jassani's lead- ership. “Jassani should have taken along everybody. But he did not...."said Patel who was among the attendees for the August 23 function. Or rather, some said, Jassani didn’t have the experience or the maturity to take along ev- erybody. A school drop-out, he generously opened his function hall doors to community events and closed the deal of getting the president's post. Whatever was the case, Advani dropped out of the US visit af- ter confirming it. The official explanation was that he didn't want to stay out of the country - when Gujarat elections were round the corner. So, the Royal Albert Palace where the statue was installed wore no festivities. A few lights dimly lighted up the area. There was no music nor any crowd. Only friends of Jassani were at hand for the installa- tion of the statue, A long line of friends came up fe se oP is 4°. F Le ° to profusely praise Jassani’s ef- forts to bring the statue single- handedly, Dr. Parikh, a philan- thropist and president-elect of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, said Jassani has done 2 “priceless contribu- tion” to the community. Simi- larly, others who sang praises of Jassani included H. R. Shah, Ramesh Patel, J P Patel, Yashwant Patel, Mangal Gupta, Subash Dalal and Rajendra Patel. The freedom fighter who was associated with Sardar Patel was neither given a2 proper intro- duction nor allowed to com- plete his speech at the Friday’ function. The power to his mike was abashedly switched off even before he could finish his talk. “I don’t want to get into poli- tics anymore. After my term as FTA president, I want to be left alone,” a beleagurered Jassani told India Tribune when asked the story behind this tame ‘in- stallation.' “No actor or politician, I don't want anybody to inaugurate the statue,” said Jassani. The statue of Sardar Patel wha single-handedly persuaded more than 530 princely states and is seen as a symbol of India's unity coulda’t bring together the Indian community. On the other hand, it only revealed hmv deeply the community was divided, an observer said. ? 40k CAAANVd TWLOL 4k NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document