Apology or no apology from the government, the collapse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue is here to stay as an election issue
Youth Congress members stage a protest near a Shivaji statue against the state government over the recent collapse of a Shivaji statue, in Malvan, on Saturday. Pic/PTI
Apologies from PM Narendra Modi, CM Eknath Shinde and other National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders over the collapse of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj haven’t blunted the Opposition’s attack, but have instead sharpened it on Sunday through ‘jode maro andolan’ (hit with shoe agitation) that saw participation by the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s top leadership, and Chhatrapati Shivaji’s descendants from Kolhapur. The protest is expected to spread across the state starting Monday.
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The Mahayuti is aware of the tension and wary of the Opposition’s effort to derive electoral advantage out of the sentiment. In dealing with it, the BJP has countered with a parallel protest against MVA, saying that the Opposition should stop politics over the unfortunate incident. Politically speaking, it is unlikely that the MVA rank and file will lay down the arms that have been handed to them on a platter by the Sindhudurg incident ahead of the Assembly elections. Within a week of the public uprising over the Badlapur sexual assaults, the Opposition latched on to the statue collapse. All oppositions have done it and will continue to do it.
If you look beyond Maharashtra, you know how it works the same way. Only the positions of political stakeholders change. There is no immediate escape for those in the government. Time takes its own course. Public memory blurs, but it is political people who ride over public sentiment whenever they see an advantage coming their way. All governments have experienced it. Some sustained it, some didn’t, and some prevented further damage, yet suffered.
Mahayuti’s counter
As apologies have been disputed by the Opposition and activists, what next, apart from probes, would come from the ruling parties? Preliminary findings do not address the responsibility of the people who represented the government agencies in the statute project. We haven’t heard of any suspension or transfer yet. The sculptor and structural consultant have been booked. One of them has surrendered to the police. A high-power technical committee, including the Indian Navy, state officers and independent experts, has been formed to probe the collapse. It has also been guaranteed that a new towering statue will be installed at the same site. A technical panel of bureaucrats and experts has been asked to work on a fall-proof installation.
The Opposition has applied all its brain and brawn to damage the Mahayuti government that has been trying to shift public focus by campaigning that the Congress and others in MVA are out to stop the ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’, an ambitious welfare scheme for women, by way of seeking the court’s intervention. The campaign reached across the state on Saturday when CM Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, in their speeches at the launch of the second phase of the scheme in Nagpur, identified the petitioner Anil Wadpalliwar as a local Congress worker.
Pawar with a difference
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar was quick to tender a public apology, as was Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar. Pawar asked his cadre to repent and do penance (aatma-klesh) over the statue collapse. He reminded of a daylong fast he had undertaken to atone for his objectionable remark a decade ago. At the recent event that turned the heat on the government he is part of, Pawar stayed ‘politically correct’, while BJP and Shinde Sena offered explanations as they bore the brunt. As part of an image makeover ahead of the Assembly elections, the deputy CM continued with his yatra as scheduled and took a break to attend official events. When CM Shinde was asked about his deputy’s apology, he too said that he would kneel a hundred times before Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue to seek pardon for the statue’s fall.
Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
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