Monument to President Ho Chi Minh on the avenue named after Uncle Ho in Kolkata. (Photo: VOV)
The first avenue named after Uncle Ho in India called “Ho Chi Minh Sarani”, which was named in 1968 by the people of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.
More than 20 years later, in 1990, before the local people's earnest wishes, the City Council and the Indochina-Vietnam Solidarity Committee in West Bengal officially recognized the Ho Chi Minh Sarani avenue and held the solemn inauguration ceremony on the occasion of Uncle Ho’s 100th birthday.
Ho Chi Minh Sarani is one of the central streets in the city of Kolkata. The building located at No.1 Ho Chi Minh Sarani avenue is the Metro shopping mall, one of the most modern shopping malls in Kolkata.
Sharing about the affection that the people of Kolkata have for President Ho Chi Minh, Indian journalist and writer Geetesh Sharma once said: "For us, the people of India, the phrase "Vietnamese people" or "Ho Chi Minh" is a familiar and close name that is no different from our own flesh and blood. More especially, for the people in Kolkata, the period 1945-1975 was the period when the whole Vietnamese people devoted all their efforts to the arduous and difficult resistance war against the French, American and Japanese fascists. During that time, the Indian people in general and people in the West Bengal state united in the anti-war movement in Vietnam, supporting the heroic and patriotic Vietnamese nation.
Also in 1990, an avenue in India’s capital New Delhi was named after Ho Chi Minh. Tourists coming to the avenue are impressed by GPS devices, which read out loud “Ho Chi Minh” as proof of the love and respect of Indian people for Uncle Ho.
India is also known as the first country in the world to erect a bronze statue of Uncle Ho.
In 1990, marking the 100th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh, the government of West Bengal state decided to erect a bronze statue of Uncle Ho in a city central park, at the intersection between Ho Chi Minh Sarani Avenue and Jawaharlan Nehru Avenue.
Kolkata leaders also invited a Vietnamese painter and sculptor to survey the landscape. The Indian Minister of Culture at that time, Bhudadev Battacharya, was personally interested in and directed the work.
Uncle Ho's monument is made of bronze, solemnly placed on a brown granite block brought from a province more than 1,000km from Kolkata. The longer the stone is left, the more shiny it will be and can last for hundreds of years.
The Indians are proud that they are the first country in the world to erect a bronze statue of Ho Chi Minh with great admiration./.