The External Affairs Minister unveiled Mahatma Gandhi’s Bust at the premises of the UN Headquarters on Decemebr 14.
- The bust, a gift from India to the United Nations, is the first Gandhi sculpture that has been installed at the UN Headquarters.
- The bust was made by renowned Indian sculptor Padma Shree awardee Ram Sutar, who has also designed the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat.
- The only other gift from India on display at the U.N. Headquarters is an 11th century black-stone statue of ‘Surya’, the Sun God, donated on July 26, 1982.
- The statue, dating from the late Pala period and which is currently displayed in the Conference Building, was presented as a gift by then Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi to the UN.
- A day after a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled in the presence of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted that it will “serve as a reminder of the values Gandhi upheld”.
