Curious case of Tamil plaque at ‘Statue of Unity’!

Bengaluru, Nov 2: The world's tallest statue, the 'Statue of Unity', may have made headlines globally, but a photo of a plaque at the 'Statue of Unity' memorial showed a gibberish translation of the word 'Statue of Unity' in Tamil which went viral all over the social media. Tamilians were upset - not with the statue - but a signboard that reportedly featured the name of the statue in several languages. They claimed the Tamil translation of 'Statue of Unity' was just 'gibberish'. However, the signboard was not to be found during the inauguration on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a top official from the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam said that the picture of the signboard featuring the Tamil text was fake. They said no such signage was present at the site or had been pulled down.

But many on Twitter pointed out that the words 'Statue of Unity' was misspelled in Tamil and that the script did not make sense.

Was 'Statue of Unity' misspelled in Tamil?

A Twitter user used Google's translate and transliteration tools to show the correct spelling.

Google translates it much better

One of the Twitterati also shared the screenshot of how Google is better in translating the 'Statue of Unity.

No such board at all clarified by authorities of project

One more Twitter user posted a series of photos with a caption,''Spent around 3000 crores but 0 on language translation. #ஸ்டேட்டுக்கேஒப்பியூனிட்டி feeling shame on Government for wrong Tamil translation #StatueOfUnity.'' Replying to the tweet, one of the user said that there was no such board at all.

Screenshot that was deleted?

A screenshot of the tweet from the official account of the Gujarat Chief Minister's Office which was later deleted. The official handle of the Gujarat Chief Minister's Office showed the plaque with the Tamil writings alone struck out. The photo, along with other photos taken during the inauguration was published at 10:05 am on October 31. The tweet was subsequently deleted.