Its called statue of unity because of patel's role in unifying modern india from a patchwork of hundreds of princely states after british transfer of power either through reason or force(junagadh,hyderabad).In this he was extremely successful as nearly all princely states joined to form a contiguous indian state rather than jinnahs dream of a string of muslim states within india(bhopal,awadh,hyderabad) and surrounding it.Though i think Subhas bose deserves a statue more than any other,patel still played an important role.Ultimately this sort of expense is unnecessary for any man,but if gujarat's people are willing to pay the taxes to fund it,more power to them.It is certainly a very fine engineering feat.And proud thing is it was done by an indian company larsen and toubro.