Two former Presidents in a long wait list for sponsors

The rules stipulate that once the decision is made, somebody has to donate the portrait/statue before they can be put up in Parliament.

In the case of Radhakrishnan, the Republic’s second President, the Government of Tamil Nadu was requested to donate his statue, but there has been no response. For Hussain, the request was made to the Government of UP, but the committee drew a blank. And in the case of the Frontier Gandhi, the Government of Delhi is still ‘‘considering’’ the matter.

The Government of Mayawati, which has built parks and universities in the name of Ambedkar, has shown no interest in getting a horseback statue of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. The Government of Rajasthan has shown a similar disinterest in Maharana Pratap, saying that it had no money. So it is not a leader’s contribution but politics of the moment which determines whether his or her portrait will adorn the walls of Parliament. The Congress Government, for instance, installed Rajiv Gandhi’s portrait in Central Hall and the socialists pushed for Ram Manohar Lohia. The installation of the portrait of Savarkar is seen as part of the BJP’s aggressive Hindutva strategy, though BJP is also using the opportunity to honour its icons.

The Maharashtra factor too played part in the clearance of Savarkar’s name. Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi is a Maharashtrian and so is Shivraj Patil, who was one of the four MPs present at the December 5 meeting of the Joint Committee on the Installation of Portraits which took the decision. When Joshi raised the issue, Shivraj Patil is believed to have agreed to it. Somnath Chatterji raised doubts whether there was any space in the Central Hall left for another portrait. The Lok Sabha Speaker replied that there was a niche near the entrance, and the matter was left at that.

What has also riled the opposition, which boycotted the function to unveil the portrait today, is the positioning of Savarkar’s portrait. It is of the same size as that of Mahatma Gandhi and bang opposite to that of the Mahatma.

The Committee at its last meeting also cleared two other names — Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Devi Lal. Three statues are ready for unveiling in the Parliament House — of Mahatma Basveswara, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Acharya Narendra Dev. Others in the pipeline are Bhagat Singh, Vithalbhai Patel, Indrajit Gupta, Bhupesh Gupta, and S.A. Dange.

The Committee on December 5 cleared another 29 names — 24 for portraits and five for busts. This new list includes Acharya Kripalani, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya, Pattabhi Sitarmaiyya, V.K. Krishna Menon, Annie Besant, Giani Zail Singh, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Chandra Shekhar Azad, and Mangal Pandey.