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Journalism of Courage
Eight months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it, a 35-foot statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at Rajkot Fort in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district collapsed earlier this week, triggering a backlash from the Opposition that has been handed an emotive issue over which it can target the ruling Mahayuti government.
Whether a government function or a conclave or rally of a political party irrespective of its ideology, a statute of Shivaji, an almost divine figure in Maharashtra and a key part of Maharashtrian identity, always finds a place of pride on the podium. For more than two decades, the proposed Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai has been a political issue in the state, with all main parties mentioning it in their manifesto. Despite the political consensus over the project, it has generated some heated debates in the state Assembly and Legislative Council.
The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government first conceptualised the memorial project ahead of the 2004 elections. It also prominently featured in its election manifesto in 2009. When the BJP and the Shiv Sena were voted to power in 2014, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis promised to fast-track the project and ensure its completion “within 40 months”. In the 2016-’17 Budget, the government allocated Rs 70 crore. The 192-metre statute would be complete with an art museum, food courts, and light and sound auditoriums to be built in a public-private partnership at an estimated cost of Rs 3,500 crore. However, the project is not anywhere near completion yet.
Though there are Shivaji statues in all 355 talukas and almost all villages across the state’s 36 districts, each government in the last two decades has pitched Shivaji statues to enhance its electoral prospects. Even as the controversy over the collapse of the statute in Sindhudurg plays out, the Pune Municipal Corporation has started the administrative process to see relevant approvals to install a 20-feet-tall Shivaji statue as part of a beautification project in the city.
And not just statues, several key public spaces have been renamed after the 17th-century king. In March 1996, Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Three years later, the city airport was renamed after the warrior-king, In 2017, the word “Maharaj” was added to the names of both the railway terminus and the airport after approval from the Centre.
In previous years, there have also been controversies over the celebrations of Shivaji’s birth anniversary. The undivided Shiv Sena always took to the streets to demand that the warrior-king’s birth anniversary be observed as per the Hindu almanac and the Gregorian calendar. As a result, while the state government continues to observe Shiv Jayanti on February 19, as per the Gregorian calendar, several others celebrate it as per the Hindu almanac.
