Please don’t do this to any artists: Sculptor Arun Yogiraj accuses ‘The Hindu’ of not crediting him for Netaji statue at Kartavya Path

New Delhi, Nov 12: Sculptor Arun Yogiraj, who is popularly known for sculpting the 28-feet-tall granite statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose located at Kartavya Path, has accused "The Hindu" and its editor of spreading fake news and crediting another artist in one of its articles.

 

The senior assistant Editor of the English-daily, Anuj Kumar, published an article, "Chiselling a new era" on Friday and credited sculptor Naresh Kumawat for the Netaji statue.

 

 

“At a time when our Prime Minister talks of ushering in the digital era, I have tried to bring the latest technology to the ancient art of sculpting,” says an effusive Naresh Kumawat, the third-generation sculptor who is basking in the glory of his latest work of art – the stone statue of Subhas Chandra Bose at the newly christened Kartavya Path in Delhi. Kumawat modelled the 28-feet statue and his team of craftsmen carved the black granite structure in quick time," the article by Anuj Kumar stated.

 

Responding to the same, Sculptor Arun Yogiraj lashed out at The Hindu for giving credit to artist Naresh Kumawat for modelling Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose statue by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 2022. "What a false news by The Hindu … Bose granite statue for India gate was sculpted by me and one should not claim someone’s effort and achievements as his own..I never referred any model of Naresh kumawat its so painful and disgusting to see this article," he tweeted

 

 

Retweeting a video of Ministry of Culture about the statue in which he tagged, he said, "Retweeting at this moment for the public …. Pls don’t do this to any artists…Naresh kumawat…" and tagged The Hindu.

 

Besides, the Ministry of Culture tagging him said, "The hard work behind the historic Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue at the India Gate! Sculptor Arun Yogiraj’s video on the process of making the #Netaji statue over 75 days, sculpting a 280-ton monolithic granite statue is breathtaking."

 

 

Further, he also shared the work order copy, received on June 13 this year from the NGMA. “Not mentioned about copying of model by Artist Naresh kumawat …If I would have told to copy someones model I would have not taken this work…I’m an artist not a labour carver…,” Arun Yogiraj pointed out.

 

https://twitter.com/yogiraj_arun/status/1591111917393022976

 

In another tweet, the sculptor pointed out how Union Minister Prahlad Joshi had lauded him for his work on the Netaji’s statue.

 

 

Apart from this, Press Information Bureau (PIB) had also released a statement mentioning the role of Arun Yogiraj in sculpting the granite statue of Netaji, currently placed under a canopy in Kartavya Path. "The statue is completely hand sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools. The team of sculptors for executing the statue was led by Shri. Arun Yogiraj," it read.

As per the press release issued on the occasion of its unveiling on Kartavyapath, after 26,000 man-hours of intense artistic endeavor, the granite monolith was chiseled to produce a statue weighing 65 MT.

 

The statue is completely hand-sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools. The team of sculptors for executing the statue was led by Shri. Arun Yogiraj’. A 100 feet long truck with 140 wheels was specially designed for this monolithic granite stone to travel the 1665 km from Khammam in Telangana to New Delhi.