India Sees Red Over 33 Million Statue in PM Modis First Budget
India's new budget is courting controversy after 33 million was earmarked for a statue of national icon Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, but only 25 million for women's safety and 16.5 million for the education of young girls. The iron-and-bronze structure, to be erected in new Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, will stand at 182 m tall  twice New York's Statue of Liberty  and so become the new tallest statue in the world. However, the project would appear an odd priority for a nation battling rising inflation, a sluggish economy and quickly gaining a reputation as the rape capital of the world. "It is surprising," says Mumbai-based author Chandrima Pal. "Especially since one of Modi's key poll pegs was security for women and he ran a massive campaign around that.", The total cost of immortalizing Patel, who was Home Minister in the government of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is estimated at some 338 million, the rest to be filled by donations and private-sector investment. But public opposition to the statue is growing  the project was rated "most disliked" on the website of NDTV news channel, and the Times of India newspaper started a social-media survey asking the loaded question of whether the project was "wasteful expenditure." Mayank Jain, a youth activist and a finance student in the capital, New Delhi, decried a "complete failure of prioritization.", The Modi government, though, would appear unmoved. Despite the uproar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said during a postbudget chitchat with NDTV that he had "absolutely no regrets."