Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is facing criticism over the incident of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue collapsing. Amid the increasing pressure from the opposition, Chief Minister Shinde said on Thursday that if needed, he would not hesitate to touch the feet of this mighty ruler 100 times and apologize for the incident. Talking to reporters here, Shinde said that the opposition has other issues to do politics, but Shivaji Maharaj, who is revered in Maharashtra, should be kept away from it.
Amid the heat over the statue collapse incident in Sindhudurg district four days ago, the state government has constituted a technical committee to ascertain the cause of the accident, while members of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar held silent protests across Maharashtra against the incident.
“Chhatrapati Shivaji is the patron deity of Maharashtra. I am ready to touch his feet 100 times and apologise (for the vandalisation of the statue). I will not shy away from apologising. Our government works keeping his (Shivaji’s) ideals in mind,” Shinde asserted. His remarks came a day after Ajit Pawar apologised to the people of the state for the collapse of the statue, which was installed in the coastal district’s Malvan tehsil, around 480 km from Mumbai.
The 35-foot-high statue of the 17th century Maratha Empire founder, installed in the Rajkot fort complex, was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nearly nine months after it was unveiled, it collapsed on August 26, kicking up a political storm in the state, where elections are due in the next few months. The state government has said that the project was carried out by the Indian Navy.
The Indian Navy on Thursday said it had conceptualised and executed the project to install the Shivaji statue that fell in Malvan, Maharashtra this week, in coordination with the state government and the state government also provided funds for it. The Navy said in a statement that it is committed to assist in all steps to repair the statue and restore it as soon as possible.
A statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office after Shinde’s meeting with ministers, top state officials and Navy officials late on Wednesday night said that the government has constituted a technical committee to investigate the causes of the collapse of Shivaji Maharaj’s statue. The committee will include engineers, IIT experts and Navy officials.
Shinde said that two joint committees have been formed. One committee will find out the reasons behind the accident, while the other committee will include experts, sculptors having experience in making Chhatrapati Shivaji’s statues, engineers and naval officers who will consider the aspect of reconstruction. The Chief Minister said, “Our effort is to rebuild the statue.”
Shinde said the Navy has demanded that the area where the statue has been installed be cordoned off for inspection and reconstruction work be started. In a related development, activists of Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade staged a protest outside the house of sculptor Jaideep Apte, who made the statue, in neighbouring Thane city. The NCP, a constituent of the Mahayuti government, staged a state-wide protest demanding immediate reconstruction of the statue.
During Ajit Pawar’s Jan Samman Yatra in Nanded, NCP’s Maharashtra unit president Sunil Tatkare said that the fall of Shivaji Maharaj’s statue is sad and his party has decided to protest against the incident as everyone has the right to do so. He said, “In a democracy, everyone has the right to protest. The incident of the fall of Shivaji Maharaj’s statue in Malvan is unfortunate and sad. We are protesting against it and are demanding strict action against the culprits by submitting a memorandum to the officials.
In Pune, the city unit of NCP held a protest near the statue of Shivaji Maharaj in Shivajinagar. In Latur city of central Maharashtra, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) workers held a protest over the statue collapse incident. Opposition leaders have announced that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will take out a protest march in Mumbai on September 1 against the statue collapse incident.