The land of United Arab of Emirates (UAE) will get a message of peace from India as a statue of the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi will be installed at the India Social and Cultural Centre in Abu Dhabi on February 1.
Making this announcement, Jayachandran Nair, ISC acting president, said, “By putting this statue in the ISC, we are giving Mahatma Gandhi an eternal home in the UAE. This statue echoes the special friendship between India and the UAE.”
A function will also be organised at the India Social and Cultural Centre to mark the installation ceremony.
VTV Damodaran, Gandhi Sahitya Vedi president, has taken charge of this project.
“This was my long-time desire, ISC's former literary secretary Jayadevan RV was also instrumental in realising this dream. This is for the first-time that a Gandhi statue is being shipped to a Gulf country. This is a historical moment,” he said.
Excited about the project, Sudhir Kumar Shetty, community leader and Gandhi Sahitya Vedi, said, “This is a happy moment as we are celebrating 2018 as the 'Year of Zayed'. What better occasion to install this statue. The Indian Embassy extended full support to get this statue here. It was shipped under the address of Indian Embassy.”
This statue took the artist Chithran Kunhimangalam about six months to complete. He said, “This is the first time any of my work has been flown out of India.”