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Mahatma Gandhi's statue to be installed at India Social and Cultural Centre in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi - The statue will be unveiled this Thursday.

UAE-India ties are on a rise like never before, and in the 'Year of Zayed', the UAE will see a statue of India's 'Father of the Nation', Mahatma Gandhi, installed at the India Social and Cultural Centre on Thursday.
"By putting this statue in the ISC, we are giving Mahatma an eternal home in the UAE," ISC acting president Jayachandran Nair said during a press conference.
"This statue echoes the special friendship between India and the UAE," he said.
VTV Damodaran, Gandhi Sahitya Vedi president, had taken charge of the project.
"This was my long-time desire, ISC's former literary secretary Jayadevan RV was also instrumental in realising this dream. This is for the first-time that a Gandhi statue is being shipped to a Gulf country. This is a historical moment," he said.
Sudhir Kumar Shetty, community leader and Gandhi Sahitya Vedi patron is delighted with the development.
"This is a happy moment as we are celebrating 2018 as the 'Year of Zayed'. What better occasion to install this statue. The Indian Embassy extended full support to get this statue here. It was shipped under the address of Indian Embassy."
The statue, created by Chithran Kunhimangalam, took six months to make.
"This is first time any of my work has been flown out of India," Kunhimangalam said.
There will be short function to mark the installation ceremony at ISC reception on Thursday.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com