125-ft Syama Prasad Mookerjee statue in Kolkata to be his tallest; Amit Shah lays foundation stone

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday laid the foundation stone for a 125-ft statue of Syama Prasad Mookerjee at Eco Park in New Town, Kolkata on the occasion of the Bengali ideologue’s 125th birth anniversary.

Shah was accompanied by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Sekhawat and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Samik Bhattacharya.

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A ceremonial programme was held at the site where the statue will be erected, with senior BJP leaders, party workers and supporters in attendance.

Shah unveiled a plaque at the event in New Town and participated in a groundbreaking ceremony (bhumi pujan) at the site where the statue will be erected, amid chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai‘.

The 125-ft monument will become the tallest statue of the nationalist leader in the country, surpassing the existing 65-ft statue in Lucknow.

Senior BJP leaders described the project as a tribute to one of Bengal’s most influential political figures and a recognition of his contribution to national unity and public life.

West Bengal Health Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee, West Bengal’s health minister said the statue will ensure that Mookerjee’s legacy lives on.

“His legacy will live on with this statue. His contributions towards the nation and the state are immense but were consistently ignore by previous state givernments in West Bengal as well as in the Centre,” Mukherjee said.

Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the ideological predecessor of the BJP, was a former Union minister, educationist and the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta.

He resigned from the Union Cabinet in 1950 over differences with the government’s policy towards Pakistan and went on to establish the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. He died in custody in Jammu and Kashmir in 1953 after being arrested while protesting against the state’s special constitutional status.