Rahul Bajaj donates £200,000 for Gandhi statue in London
Saturday, 20/12/2014
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LONDON: Industrialist Rahul Bajaj has donated £200,000 to the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust.
The donation by the chairman of Baja Auto is the largest amount so far.
set up to raise nearly 1 million pounds for a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square here early next year.
Meghnad Desai, chairman of the trust, said on Friday: “This is a wonderful gift for the trust just before the New Yea. Bajaj epitomises the best of Indian industrialists who have seen the transition of India from colonial rule to the Independence”.
The trust now expects that the rest of the funds required for the project will come through by January. It said in a press release that small and large donations continued to flow in through the trust’s website ( www.gandhistatue.com) from Gandhi followers in the UK and all over the world.
The trust organised an exhibition in New Delhi to raise funds for the statue, which was announced by chancellor George Osborne during his visit to India in July. The statue, produced by British sculptor Philip Jackson, has been sent to the foundry for casting.
The trust earlier received a donation of £100,000 from an Indian- origin businessman Rami Ranger, who later joined as a trustee, along with Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former governor of West Bengal.
Ef for ts are being made to ensure that the statue is unveiled by PM Narendra Modi in early 2015. But the May elections in Britain is likely to be a factor in his decision to attend the unveiling ceremony or not.
