Irony in the soul

Union Minister for Mines Dinsha Patel seemed amused that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was urging farmers to donate pieces of iron for the proposed 182-metre statue of Sardar Patel called the "Statue of Unity" that will be built facing the Narmada dam near Bharuch. "As far as I know - and I have asked a few sculptors - statues are made using malleable metal like copper, which may be mixed with nickel and other metals and certainly not iron. I don't know which sculptors Modi is consulting," Patel said. Then, in an oblique reference to the warm relations between Modi and Ratan Tata, he joked somewhat tastelessly, "If Modi wants iron he can tell Tata, he will provide all the iron needed."