Ahmedabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy reacted over the renaming of Motera stadium as Narendra Modi stadium.
On his twitter handle, he wrote, ” PTs is there any leader of a nation allowing a stadium to be named after himself ? My research so far shows only two: Saddam Hussein and Gadafi. That is an ill omen. Did Nehru, Mao or Idi Amin? Modi must demand that his name be removed and Sardar Patel’s name restored”.
The stadium which was recently re-opened after extensive renovation work which increased seating capacity to a record 1,10,000, hosted its first Test match on Wednesday.
The stadium’s new name was announced in an inauguration ceremony that was attended by President Ram Nath Kovind, Home Minister Amit Shah, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah among others.
World’s largest cricket stadium
The stadium is located within the larger Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave which will have facilities for Olympic sports. Among the facilities that are set to be included in the enclave in addition to the cricket stadium is a multi-purpose stadium for athletics and football, a hockey stadium and outdoor practice fields. The enclave is also slated to include a host of indoor facilities including a swimming pool and velodrome along with facilities for beach volleyball and a boating centre.
The Narendra Modi Stadium surpasses the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia as the world’s largest cricket stadium. The MCG has a maximum seating capacity of 1,00,024. It is also the second largest stadium in the world overall, behind Rungrado 1st of May stadium in Pyonyang, North Korea which has an estimated capacity of nearly 1,15,000.
With inputs from agencies