Centre sets up panel to celebrate 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

PM Modi addresses at the 'Statue of Unity' during 'Rashtriya Ekta Diwas' celebrations on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel birth anniversary, at Kevadia, in Narmada district. (PTI/File Photo)

The government has set up a high-level committee to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Centre on Monday announced the constitution of the panel in a gazette notification.

"To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the competent authority has approved the constitution of a High Level Committee," reads a gazette notification by the Ministry of Culture, published on August 25.

The committee will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and include former Presidents Pratibha Devisingh Patil and Ram Nath Kovind and former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. The committee also includes Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, former deputy PM LK Advani, Union ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal, among others.

The list also includes chief ministers like Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), and Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala). Governors of Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, are also among the committee members.

Along with central government ministers, several chief ministers, governors and senior bureaucrats, the committee also includes leading historians, scholars, and authors like Nalin Mehta, Ashok Malik, Swapan Dasgupta and Alok Mehta.

Other notable figures includes Olympic athlete and Member of Parliament PT Usha, actor and NSD chairman Paresh Rawal, spiritual leaders Mata Amritanandamayi and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, sculptor Ram V Sutar, former Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar.

The full list of committee members can be viewed here.

Patel, born on October 31, 1875, was a freedom fighter and independent India's first home minister. He is also known as the 'Iron Man of India,' and the Statue of Unity in Gujarat celebrates his legacy.

The government has also set up two other high-level committees to celebrate the 150th birth anniversaries of tribal icon Birsa Munda and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.