--- description: India's new budget set aside $33 million to help build a statue for one of India's founding fathers and just $25 million for women's safety. title: New Delhi's Extravagance in Funding Million-Dollar Statue Annoys India image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d952ebae80d1e2/69869b6355a8595f1fa81c15/india-budget_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # India Sees Red Over $33 Million Statue in PM Modi's First Budget by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 11, 2014 9:33 AM CUT  An Indian worker carries a sack containing copies of the 2014-15 union budget at the Indian parliament in New Delhi, Thursday, July 10, 2014. An Indian worker carries a sack containing copies of the 2014-15 union budget at the Indian parliament in New Delhi, Thursday, July 10, 2014.Manish Swarup—AP Photo by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 11, 2014 9:33 AM CUT 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](http://time.com/2869075/india-rape-women-hanging-uttar-pradesh/ "undefined") 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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2975307/india-statue-modi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2975307/india-statue-modi/"},"headline":"India Sees Red Over $33 Million Statue in PM Modi's First Budget","datePublished":"2014-07-11T09:33:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:05:34.445Z","description":"Opponents accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of putting the reverence of long-dead founding fathers over the safety of India's women","url":"https://time.com/2975307/india-statue-modi/","keywords":["India","Modi"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d952ebae80d1e2/69869b6355a8595f1fa81c15/india-budget_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d952ebae80d1e2/69869b6355a8595f1fa81c15/india-budget_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"India Budget","caption":"India Budget","creditText":"Manish Swarup—AP Photo","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2975307/india-statue-modi/","name":"India Sees Red Over $33 Million Statue in PM Modi's First Budget"}}]}] ```