Earlier in the day, Shah, who is also Union Cooperation Minister, dedicated a Mobile Blood Collection can for GMERS Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad and chaired a national meeting of Cooperation Ministers of all states in Gandhinagar.
UNION HOME Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday inaugurated a 21-ft statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj astride a horse, on Maharashtra Samaj Bhavan Road in Sector 21, Gandhinagar. Shah is the MP from this constituency.
“Shivaji’s life, achievements and contributions will be remembered for eons. When the darkness of slavery was all around, from Afghanistan to Kanyakumari and Somnath to Odisha, the entire country was shackled by slavery, whenever the Mughal Empire became weak and the Adil Shahi Sultanate came to power, it would feel as if there was freedom from the Mughals,” said Shah.
He added, “Slowly, the people forgot the concepts of swaraj, swadharm and swabhasha because of years of ghulami and pratadna (slavery and persecution). At the time, a 16-year-old Shivaji resolved to establish Hindvi Swaraj at the Rayeshwar temple (in Pune), and showed the country a new way forward. There was neither an army, instruments or weapons or an empire, and Shivaji’s father himself worked for Bijapur (Adil Shahi Sultanate). At that time, this boy made the resolution before the deity that he would work to bring swaraj, swadharm and swabhasha.”
Shah said, “Nobody believed him at that time, not even his friends. Only Jijau (Queen Mother Jijabai), believed that he would establish a Hindvi Swaraj. And within 40 years, after breaking the 250-year-old shackles of slavery, he was crowned as Chhatrapati and the dream of Hindvi Swaraj was realised for the first time.”
Earlier in the day, Shah, who is also Union Cooperation Minister, dedicated a Mobile Blood Collection can for GMERS Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad and chaired a national meeting of Cooperation Ministers of all states in Gandhinagar.
At the statue unveiling, he said, “Shivaji never abandoned his struggle. Aurangzeb (Mughal Emperor) employed the full force of the Mughal empire to break him, but Shivaji never stopped his struggle. The temples of Mathura and Kashi were destroyed to weaken the Independence movement but Shivaji defended the temples in the South, rebuilt the Sapt Koteshwar Temple and had it consecrated again. He gave the message then that Sanatan Dharma would not be uprooted by destroying temples. Destructive powers will break temples, we will keep building more and this country will gain Swaraj (self rule).”
About Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah said, “The movement begun by Shivaji was finally realised when the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was consecrated by Modiji. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor – that Aurangzeb destroyed – was restored at that same scale. Destroyed 16 times, the Somnath Temple was rebuilt. Shivaji Maharaj was the first to establish a Navy. But the British, who had put their symbol (St George’s Cross) on the Indian Navy, it was replaced with a Shiv Mudrika by Narendra Modi. He removed the signs of slavery even from the emblem (ensign) of the Navy. During Shivaji’s coronation, Gagabhatta (17th century scholar), said, “In the next several years, the entire Bharatvarsha will shine bright and stand before the entire world. The people of Bharat are seeing his words being fulfilled today.”
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On literature about Shivaji and his contribution to “Indian languages”, Shah said, “Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Subramaniam Bharati, Maharishi Arvind, Atul Chandra Hazarika, Shri Vanchinathan, there is no corner of India where poems about Shivaji have not been written. When Zaverchand Meghani decided to write for children in the cradle, he also chose Shivaji and even today, when a mother wishes that her son serves the country, she reads him Shivaji Halerdu. Shivaji also worked for Indian languages as well. After coming to power, he brought together intellectuals and removed Farsi and Urdu as languages of court administration and worked to bring in Marathi and Sanskrit words into it.”
Shah ended by saying, “Throughout his life, he worked to set up a group that would live for swaraj, swadharm and swabhasha, and within 100 years of his death, the Bhagwa (saffron flag) was flying from Attock to Cuttack and Cuttack to Pune. Today, that same Bharat, which walked on the path of Shivaji’s dream, has been successful in standing before the world in glory.”
Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujarat. He covers the region's most critical social, legal, and administrative sectors, notably specializing at the intersection of health, social justice, and disasters.
Expertise
Health and Public Policy: He has deep expertise in healthcare issues, including rare diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the complex logistics of organ transplants, and public health challenges like drug-resistant TB and heat health surveillance. His on-ground reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and Mucormycosis was critical in exposing healthcare challenges faced by marginalized communities in Gujarat.
Social Justice and Legal Administration: He reports on the functioning of the legal and police system, including the impact of judicial philosophy, forensics and crucial administrative reforms (. He covers major surveillance and crackdown exercises by the Gujarat police and security on the international border.
Disaster and Crisis Management: His work closely tracks how government and civic bodies respond to large-scale crises, providing essential coverage on the human and administrative fallout of disasters including cyclones, floods, conflict, major fires and reported extensively on the AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad.
Civic Infrastructure and Governance: Provides timely reports on critical civic failures, including large scale infrastructure projects by the railways and civic bodies, as well as the enforcement of municipal regulations and their impact on residents and heritage. ... Read More
