Indian saint, made-in-China statue

Impressive: A worker cleaning the stairs of the Statue of Equality, depicting 11th century saint Ramanujacharya in Telangana. — AFP

Compiled by JUNAID IBRAHIM, JAROD LIM and R. ARAVINTHAN

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under fire after claims emerged that the 10-billion-rupee (RM556mil) Ramanujacharya statue officially unveiled recently was built by a China-based company, Malaysia Nanban reported.

The 66m-tall Statue of Equality in Hyderabad, Telangana, was built to commemorate the 11th century Indian saint and is expected to become a tourist and pilgrimage destination.

Opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the statue was not built locally and berated Modi in a Twitter post with a swipe at the New India often touted by the PM, writing “New India is China Dependent”.

The “aimpon” or “panchaloha” statue made of five metals – gold, silver, copper, brass and zinc – is said to be one of the tallest in the world.

It is located in a 14ha compound which features a temple, meditation hall and a smaller gold statue.

> The Taiping Gurukulam Sevai Maiyam received some much-needed help to continue serving underprivileged children of Indian descent, Makkal Osai reported.

Recently, the Sri Navaneetha Krishna Temple, which houses the residential school and children’s home in Kampung Boyan, received a donation of RM21,001 from elected representatives.

Datuk Dr Jegathisan, who runs the Gurukulam, said the funds will go towards additional classes and tuition for the children.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.