Karnataka govt asks Ram Lalla idol sculptor Arun Yogiraj to create 87 pillars to mark Gandhi's ties to state

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has roped in Arun Yogiraj, the sculptor behind the Ram Lalla idol in Ayodhya, to make 87 pillars in as many places across Karnataka that were visited by Mahatma Gandhi during his lifetime.

The 87 pillars will be erected at a cost of Rs 5.09 crore, for which the government has exempted itself from the tender process to entrust the work to Arun’s Kashyapa Shilpa Kalanikethana, which is based in Mysuru.

A recent notification gives the department of information and public relations an exemption from the tender process as per Section 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act.

A fifth generation sculptor, Arun has made over 10,000 statues. In January 2024, the Ram Lalla idol made by Arun was consecrated at Ayodhya. In December that year, a 25-foot bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi sculpted by him was inaugurated at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi. Arun also sculpted the statue of Constitution architect BR Ambedkar at the Jaisalmer House in Delhi. His other works include the statues of Subhash Chandra Bose (India Gate) and Adi Shankaracharya (Kedarnath).

The state government’s decision to install pillars at each of the 87 locations visited by Mahatma Gandhi is a part of the year-long ‘Gandhi Bharata’ campaign. The campaign, which started in December 2024, marked a hundred years of Gandhi presiding over the historic Belgaum (now Belagavi) session of Congress in 1924.

Government records show that Gandhi’s first visit to Karnataka (then the princely state of Mysore) was in 1915 when he made a short visit to Bengaluru to unveil the portrait of Gopala Krishan Gokhale. “...on his way to Bengaluru, he was garlanded and honoured on the platform at the Bangarapet Railway Station by the local Gujarati merchants,” according to the Handbook of Karnataka 2015 brought out by the gazetteer department.

Between 1920 and 1937, Gandhi visited Nippani, Chikkodi, Hukkeri, Sankeshwar, Dharwad, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Ballari, Yelahanka, Tumakuru, Madhugiri, Srirangapatna, Ramanagara, Kanakapura, Arsikere, Shivamogga, Kundapur among other locations.

“...during April 1937, Gandhi visited Hudali (in Belagavi), an important Khadi centre, to inaugurate a Khadi exhibition. He stayed there from 16 to 21 April. It was his last visit to Karnataka,” the handbook stated.

Under 'Gandhi Bharata', the government has also announced that a Kannada version of the Academy award-winning 'Gandhi', the 1982 biopic by Richard Attenborough, be brought out.