Meet Sunil Deore and Laxman Vyas, the men who designed the national emblem for new Parliament building

Amid much fanfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a bronze cast of India’s national emblem on top of the new Parliament building on Monday.

This morning, I had the honour of unveiling the National Emblem cast on the roof of the new Parliament. pic.twitter.com/T49dOLRRg1

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 11, 2022

The 9,500-kg structure — measuring 6.5 metres in height — fully hand-crafted by Indian artisans was hailed for being a unique depiction of the national emblem, from the perspective of material and craftsmanship, anywhere else in India.

The bronze structure has a supporting structure of steel weighing around 6,500 kg.

The sculpture was designed and built in Aurangabad, Jaipur and Delhi by artists Sunil Deore and Lakshman Vyas.

Men behind the sculpture

The 9,500-kg bronze sculpture now standing tall atop the new Parliament building is the work of Sunil Deore from Aurangabad and Laxman Vyas from Jaipur.

Meanwhile, HCP Design, Planning and Management Ltd, the government’s consultant for the project, told The Hindu that the fabrication of the piece was carried out in Aurangabad, Jaipur and Delhi.

Sunil Deore, 49, from Aurangabad was hired by Tata Projects Ltd after they bagged the contract for building the new Parliament building.

A gold medallist from the JJ School of Arts in Mumbai, Deore has become famous world over for his work.

In the past, he designed replicas of the Ajanta and Ellora caves at the Ajanta-Ellora visitor centre with an aim to reduce the burden on the original caves. The project had come with a price tag of Rs 125 crore.

When assigned the work on the Ashok Stambh on top of the Parliament building, he was quoted as telling Times of India, “It is indeed an honour to be shortlisted from across the country to do this prestigious job, which will be recorded in the country’s history.”

Deore has said that the work on the national emblem cast took him five months to complete and he used his father’s work at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as inspiration.

Seeing the gargantuan task at hand, Rajashthan sculptor Laxman Vyas was also roped in to work on the project.

The 45-year-old from Nohar in the Hanumangarh district, with a degree in Sculpture Art from the University of Rajasthan, has had vast experiences with statues and pillars.

Over the last 20 years, Vyas has sculpted over 300 items, including statues and various kinds of emblems.

Some of his famous creations include the 57-foot-tall Maharana Pratap statue in Udaipur, Elephant statues at Delhi Airport and statues of Jawaharlal Nehru, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya and Indira Gandhi.

On his love for sculpting, he was quoted telling The Statesman, “I have a passion and love for sculpture making. One of my sons has followed my footprint while another is still studying in school.”

Reacting to the controversy

Though the unveiling of the emblem atop the Parliament was celebrated by the Centre, it found itself in the middle of a controversy when the Opposition accused the government of giving it a ‘ferocious look’ and insulting the symbol.

Many political leaders and activists slammed the government of changing the character and nature of the lions in the emblem — a claim completely refuted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

BJP chief spokesperson Anil Baluni, as per a PTI report, said the real reason behind the Opposition's allegation was its frustration over India creating its own Parliament building under Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the bronze cast of the national emblem atop the new Parliament building was a scaled up version of the original Sarnath emblem.

“If the Sarnath emblem was to be scaled up or the emblem on the new Parliament building is reduced to that size there would not be any difference,” said Puri.

When Sunil Deore, the man behind the artwork, was asked about the controversy, said that it could be because of the angle at which the lions are being viewed.

In an interview to NDTV, Deore said: “The photograph is out of zoom. The lower angle is changing the expression. As an artist, we have conducted researches going to the museum. We have only enlarged on the original, which is 2.5 feet. In such cases, everything gets magnified. You have to think of that. And this sculpture we will see from Parliament, at least a 100 metres away. So we had to have to emphasise the details, so that they look similar even from a distance.”

In another interview, he said that he had given the work his utmost devotion and that the criticism was hurtful.

“I am an artist and as an artist, I have given as much devotion as I could. But, with the buzz around the expression, I am really hurt. I feel this should not be happening,” he was quoted as telling Republic TV.

With inputs from agencies

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