This is an archive article published on August 28, 2024
Shivaji statue collapse: Another Mahayuti minister in the dock, MVA wants Deepak Kesarkar out
The Maha Vikas Aghadi said Deepak Kesarkar’s remarks on the Shivaji statue collapse were a reflection of the Maharashtra government’s ‘bad intentions’ and exposed its ‘shoddy functioning’.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the statue was built and overseen by the Navy and added that its collapse is not an issue on which one should play politics.
The Mahayuti government in Maharashtra faces yet another controversy, this time over education minister Deepak Kesarkar’s remarks over the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj collapsing at Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg district.
“The incident is sad but good things will come out of it,” Kesarkar, who is from the Shiv Sena and hails from coastal Sindhudurg, had said after the 35-foot-tall statue collapsed on Monday. He added that the government will construct a 100-feet Shivaji statue at the same spot.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) criticised Kesarkar’s remarks, saying it was a reflection of the government’s “bad intentions” and exposed its “shoddy functioning”.
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“People like Kesarkar should be thrown out of the Cabinet immediately… He has no right to remain in the Cabinet,” Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said on Wednesday. Raut said it seemed like Kesarkar and his government were waiting for the statue to collapse. “What a shame… They wanted the statue of none other than Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to collapse so that they could build a new one and mint money. The bad intentions of this government are clearly visible,” Raut said.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) MP said the people of Maharashtra have been hurt by the incident. “People like Kesarkar… belong to Fadnavis’s team. It is Fadnavis’s sin. They are enemies of Shivaji Maharaj. They all only want to make money,” Raut added.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londe said Kesarkar and Mahayuti ministers Chandrakant Patil and Ravindra Chavan should resign. “Patil looks after cultural affairs while Chavan is the public works department minister.
Their ministries have failed to ensure that a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji is built in such a way that it remains unaffected for years to come. Their ministries failed in their duties. Besides, Kesarkar has made a statement that only exposes the shoddy functioning of the Mahayuti government,” Londe added.
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The Shivaji statue was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Navy Day (December 4) last year. Following its collapse, both Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis pointed out that the Indian Navy had built the statue.
“The statue was built in haste before the elections so that it could be inaugurated by the Prime Minister. The contractor regime of Mahayuti is responsible for this insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who is our idol,” Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aditya Thackeray said.
Earlier this month, the Mahayuti government had come under fire from the MVA after two of its leaders, MLAs Ravi Rana and Mahesh Shinde, made comments regarding the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojna for women and were criticised by senior leaders of the alliance.
At a press conference in Mumbai, Kesarkar said he was quoted out of context. “My statement is being misinterpreted. I had said something very bad has happened… At the same time, I had said something good will come out of this… The statue which collapsed was smaller in size and we expect the new one will be 100 feet tall. Of course, this is my demand and I don’t know whether it will be accepted.”
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Kesarkar said he had also said Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the first to set up the Navy. ”We are proud of the Navy… Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is our deity and a statue befitting his stature should be built. The Navy and state government will reconstruct the statue. There is no need to do politics over it. We will built the statute as early as possible.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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