Fact Check: Sardar Vallabhbhai’s Statue of Unity is not developing any cracks, the viral image is old
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s 35-feet statue at the Rajkot Fort in Maharashtra collapsed on August 26, 2024, nearly after nine months after it was inaugurated. According to the government officials, the construction was of poor quality and its nuts and bolts were rusted.
Statue of Unity
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s 35-feet statue at the Rajkot Fort in Maharashtra collapsed on August 26, 2024, nearly after nine months after it was inaugurated. According to the government officials, the construction was of poor quality and its nuts and bolts were rusted. This incident sparked massive outrage across the state, with the opposition parties demanding Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s resignation before the Assembly polls. The opposition named this as an insult to the legacy of the Maratha Emperor.
Amidst this, a post is going viral on social media claiming that the world’s largest statue, the Statue of Unity, also started developing cracks. The users are sharing the blown-up image of a foot of the statue with the claim that it has developed cracks and can fall anytime. We can see some crack lines on the statue near the feet.
Users shared the image collage with a claim in Hindi: “स्टैचू ऑफ यूनिटी, जिसे 3000 क
When translated, it claims: “The Statue of Unity, which was built at a cost of Rs 3000 crore, is now developing cracks. This is a clear proof of corruption and dishonesty. It could be due to Modi is either in the grip of dishonest people or he is giving them shelter. If the countrymen do not wake up even now, our country will be completely looted. Raise your voice in time, otherwise it will be too late!”
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The image is an old one and was shot during the construction time of the statue in the year 2018. When we used the image and searched using Google reverse image search, we found that the image had been online since 2018.
We found a larger version of the image was shared by an article published in the Washington Post in October 2018. It states that India’s new Statue of Unity depicts Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an independence-era leader credited with uniting the nation in the 1940s when he served as India’s first home minister. In this article, the image is shared with the caption – ‘Indian workers at the construction site of the Statue of Unity on Oct. 18. (Divyakant Solanki/EPA-EFE/REX/
Taking the cue from the caption, when we searched using the keywords, we found the Shutterstock image published on October 18, 2018. The description of the images is “Indian workers at the construction site of the "Statue of Unity" portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, at Kevadia, some 200 kilometers from Ahmedabad, India, 18 October 2018. According to reports, the statue is slated to be the world's tallest statue with a height of 182 metres and is being built as the memorial to Indian freedom fighter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel also known as 'Iron Man of India'. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the statue on October 31, the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.”
In this image, we can see the same cracklines on the foot and also the workers beside the statue. Here is the comparison.
Therefore, the claim that the Statue of Unity in Gujarat has also started developing cracks and is ready to collapse is False. The image in circulation is an old one, portraying the condition while the construction was going on in the year 2018.