Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in marking Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on Saturday, 31 October, participating in the National Unity Day celebrations at Kevadia in Gujarat on the 151st birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India. The day, observed every year on Patel’s birthday, is dedicated to the unity and integrity of the country he did so much to forge.
At the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue, the Prime Minister offered floral tributes to Patel before taking part in the celebrations. This year’s observance carries the theme “Vande Mataram”, linking the commemoration of the national song’s spirit with the message of unity that Patel embodied. Thousands of people, including schoolchildren, police personnel and visitors from across the country, gathered at Ekta Nagar for the occasion.
Alongside the celebrations, the Prime Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for projects worth more than Rs 400 crore in Ekta Nagar, adding to the infrastructure of a town that has grown around the statue into one of India’s most visited destinations. The projects are part of the continuing development of the region as a hub for tourism, education and civic amenities.
The visit is part of a two-day tour of Gujarat, during which the Prime Minister is associated with projects worth over Rs 14,400 crore across the state. The scale of the visit underlines how Ekta Diwas has grown from a commemorative event into a showcase for development, with the celebrations at Kevadia now doubling as a platform for announcing new infrastructure.
Patel’s legacy is the reason the day exists at all. As India’s first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, he led the integration of more than 560 princely states into the Indian Union in the months after Independence, a task that many at the time considered impossible. The Statue of Unity, standing 182 metres tall on the banks of the Narmada, was built as a tribute to that achievement and has since become a symbol of national integration.
Rashtriya Ekta Diwas was first observed in 2014, and its rituals have become familiar: the Run for Unity, the pledge-taking ceremony in which participants vow to preserve the unity and integrity of the nation, and parades by police and paramilitary forces. Schools and government offices across the country hold their own observances, and the celebrations at Kevadia serve as the national focal point.
For Gujarat, the day carries a particular resonance. Patel was born in Nadiad, in what is now Gujarat, and the state has embraced his legacy as a central part of its identity. Kevadia, once a quiet town near the Sardar Sarovar Dam, has been transformed over the past decade, with the statue drawing lakhs of visitors a year and reshaping the local economy around tourism.
The celebrations also come at a moment when the message of unity is being invoked in public life more broadly. The theme “Vande Mataram” recalls the song that became an anthem of the freedom movement, and its selection for this year’s Ekta Diwas ties Patel’s work of political integration to the cultural symbols of the independence struggle.
As the ceremonies at Kevadia concluded, the focus shifted to the projects announced for the region and the visitors who will continue to arrive through the winter tourist season. For the government, Ekta Diwas is both a tribute and a reminder: that the unity Patel forged in 1947 and 1948 is not a finished achievement but a task renewed every year, in every generation.
