mid-day editorial: Put in the work before fighting for credit

Even as Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ‘jal pujan’ ceremony of the Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial in Mumbai on Saturday, the Sena appeared unhappy with its ally BJP, alleging that it has ‘hijacked’ the occasion for political benefit

Even as Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ‘jal pujan’ ceremony of the Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial in Mumbai on Saturday, the Sena appeared unhappy with its ally BJP, alleging that it has ‘hijacked’ the occasion for political benefit.

While the party seemed to sulk at having the rug slipped from under its feet, it also took a swipe at the BJP over the Ram temple issue, stating that it should admit failure, as it has not been able to build the promised temple in Ayodhya even after getting a huge majority in the Lok Sabha.

There have been reports of a petulant Sena putting up posters everywhere after the party realised that the spotlight fell on the PM and the BJP for the memorial, even though Thackeray shared the stage with the PM for the ceremony.
Now that the memorial — which costs R3,600 crore — is going ahead, it is time for the Sena and other parties to act as watchdog for this memorial, rather than bicker and sulk about how the credit was taken away from them.

While it is taking shape, and even after the memorial is up, political parties need to ensure it is really the great tourist attraction it is touted to be. Cleanliness, accessibility, facilities for visiting tourist — have all these been thought about?

Every event need not result in a wasteful back and forth between political parties. Already, we see the city divided because of the amount being spent on the memorial, an amount that could have been used to repair and restore numerous monuments and sites that lie in a decrepit state today.

Now, let us not waste any more time and money on levelling charges and political bickering, but see to it that there are healthy checks and balances as the memorial is being made.

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