11,000 invitees but Sardar’s real bloodline to skip statue’s unveiling

Vadodara: Amid all the excitement surrounding the unveiling of world’s tallest statue – the Statue of Unity – is being unveiled, the real bloodline of India’s Iron Man is still in oblivion.
For the last fortnight, desperate attempts are being made by chief minister’s office (CMO) and kin of Sardar Patel to see that his only living grandson Gautam Patel becomes part of the inauguration ceremony at Kevadiya colony on October 31 .

But, with just a week left to the ceremony, Gautam Patel and his wife Nandini who spend their time between Vadodara and United States, have preferred to stay away from the spotlight. Sardar’s family consisted of wife Zaverba, son Dahyabhai and daughter Maniben. While Maniben remained unmarried till her death in 1993, Dahyabhai had two sons – elder Bipin and Gautam.

Bipin, who had no children, died in January 2004, and the only one to carry forward Sardar’s bloodline is 78-year-old Gautam, whose son Kedar is settled in the US.

In the run-up to the inauguration ceremony, CMO has taken keen interest in ensuring that Sardar’s family members remain present as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the statue.

“We too were trying to get in touch with Gautam after receiving calls from CMO but we have failed to establish any contact with him and he is unlikely to attend the programme. He had left for the United States less than a month ago,” said Bhupendra Patel, son of Sardar’s nephew Manubhai Patel, who lives in Vallabh Vidyanagar.

Patel, whose nearly 30 family members will be attending the event, said otherwise too Gautam and his family stay away from public events.

In fact, all the members of Sardar Patel’s family have been extended invitations with gold passes which will give them access close to the VVIPs including the PM.

Gautam and his wife Nandini remained present only in one event - when the then President R Venkataraman conferred Bharat Ratna to Sardar Patel, posthumously at Rashtrapati Bhavan on July 12, 1991.

“Our entire family had received invitation from Rashtrapati Bhavan and Bipin had received the Bharat Ratna on behalf of the family,” recollected Vadodara-based Dhirubhai Patel, 90, son of Sardar’s another nephew Purshottambhai Patel and eldest in Gautam’s generation.

When former PM A B Vajpayee had inaugurated the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Veer Vithalbhai Patel Memorial at Karamsad in 2000, Gautam’s family wasn’t inadvertently extended an invitation.

For the function on October 31, 2003 when the Sardar Patel Trust, which manages the memorial at Karamsad, received the Bharat Ratna from Bipin Patel, in presence of former deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Modi, who was then chief minister, the trust had extended an invitation to Gautam’s family.

“But, like now, he was in the US and did not take part in that function,” said a source close to the developments.

Away from all the limelight, Gautam and Nandini have paid silent visits to the memorial and even gifted some books that they were in possession with the last one being on March 13, 2016, whose exclusively photograph is with TOI.