Everyone will rush to tell you why the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) mustn’t build a Rupees 350 Crore monument of Maharaj Chhatrapati Shivaji larger than the Statue of Liberty near Bombay’s coastline. I am here to tell you why it’s a good thing.
First off, don’t call this just any monument! It’s going to be larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York City! Doesn’t that count for our greatness? The Statue of liberty will look so small in from of the monument of our Maharaj! What better way to show the world that we can do what America does, but better! This will have a lift to go up to the top, a revolving restaurant and a museum with artifacts of the emperor what more can you ask for! Does the Statue of Liberty have any of this?
Then of course the fact that we need as a city to grow to its destined greatness a gigantic and great monument of a great person! Let’s be honest, all the monuments or landmarks we have today are so badly maintained and/or damaged! Who wants to see those eyesores? We need something new!
These are stand-alone reasons to build it. What the many people will say is that we have so many social and civic problems that plague our city and state. The drought-hit areas are severely crippled. But they don’t understand the issue! First of all, the BMC is already spending several lacs of the taxpayer’s money for cloud seeding. So rain is imminent, and more over how can you say there is a rain shortage, when city wide basic services are being shut down because of water logging? Please get your facts right.
The social problems are primarily because citizen lack a guide in their life… This monument will be that guiding light. Just like “Lady Liberty” guides Americans our monument will guide us in following his ideals. Just renaming a vital train station, or our International Airport or having tiny insignificant statues all over the city is not sufficient to commemorate the ideals of a great human being. This one will be an equestrian statue, the way we have come to look up at him.
I have also heard many otherwise rational people saying- in times of recession should we really splurge on a monument?. The Indian Government has said that public servants shouldn't travel in business class, or live in 5 star hotels. So its not like they don’t want to save money. Moreover, its not like we will not be able to make anything from spending 350 crores, it will boost tourism significantly. At a time when tourists are low in number thanks to 26/11, this will help them comeback. The much written about and filmed slums that our tourists see as they land in the Bombay, and this magnificent statue will serve as a honey-pot.
So are they ignoring the apparent poor state of our public offices, the measly salaries of our hardworking (and in certain need of raises) public servants? Are they ignoring the so-called dilapidated education system, or schools, or hospitals? Are they turning a blind eye to poor maintenance of the roads, or poor quality of material being used? Or is it not bothered about the jam-packed trains? The answer is a big firm NO. Those are beside the point!
13 comments:
Dude, tell me what do you know about Shivaji?? How many forts have you been to as yet?? What work has the govt done there?? Do you know any of this??
Sitting in Mumbai, which is totally metropolitan, how much of Maharashtra have you seen man?? Ever been to Satara or Latur or Yavatmal or Vai? Ever talked to a true Maharashtrian, not the idiot marathi manus of mumbai who kicks the bhaiyas in the ass. A true maharashtrian?
Shivaji at the age of 16 captured his first fort, Torna, where the govt has done extensive restoration work btw, defeating the Mughals who were ruling this country for, by then, last 300 years, whose dynasty was crumbling, Akbar was long dead then.
We at 21-22 do not even have jobs yet.
Ever been to Raigad?? Theres a rope way that takes you into the fort, up there the temple has been completely restored, so has his open hall courtroom, and his small statue. Not on a horse but on his throne.
You think that this money would better be spent else where?? How naive can you be man?? You think this much money will repair your roads, educate children, you think 340 crores is a lot of money?? Relaiance Power generated 12000 crores of money in its initial public offering, and 350 crores is a lot??
Ok lets assume it is a lot of money for a moment. So you think making public offices swank and polished will improve the quality of work of a public servant?? that raising his salary will make him do his work?? that 350 crores is enuff money to raise salary?? You actually made a statement that the general public servant is hard working???!!!??? I am LOL dude!!!
So the govt made a huge housing complex in Mankhurd, u must have seen it from the train i am sure. Do you know that the slum dwellers relocated there gave those flats on rent and went back to the slums, thats how the Mankhurd slums have boomed. Even today that housing complex has so many houses alloted but empty or with people living there on rent.
You think with 350 crores the govt will be able to decongest trains?? You think poor quiality of building material will improve by pumping in 350 crores. Have you thought about the corrupt contractors whose fault it really is.
Ok so the statue will not make anyone work harder, not make the contractor less corrupt, will not educate children or improve state of public municipal schools. But it WILL be a monument to a great person, one who deserves such a monument.
I agree that Shivaji's name has been milked to bones by political parties like the Shiv Sena and MNS for propaganda. Does not make him any less great ever.
The comment this post has garnered on face book pissed me off no end you know. Thats why my anger. People dont want the statue to save environment, they dont want it cause it is competing with the americans. Arre bhai!! do you compete with your better or your inferior?? Should we now compete with Uganda or Somalia?? And how relevant is the fact that Statue of liberty was a gift!! Big deal it was a gift. So we should not construct a Taj Mahal and wait for bangladesh to gift it to us.
This issue mocks the person that Shivaji was.
First of all, Nikhil I agree with you and I must admit that I have never ever had such a long comment on my blog ever.... :-)
I just want to point out certain things Siddharth has mentioned (I hope I'm not offending you dude I just thought i could have a say as well). On a day to day basis do u really expect Nihil and ppl like me to "Ever talk(ed) to a true Maharashtrian"?
Are you really trying to say that since Reliance made "12000 crores of money in its initial public offering" we should regard 340 crores as a small amount due to the relative difference?
Are u really trying to say that raising a person's salary will not make him work wen you say "You think raising his salary will make him do his work". You tell me, if you get appreciation for your work by a raise will you not do your work properly?
You know from all that I have seen the common man needs basic things..really basic ones like infra, roads and electricity. You really think it won't make a difference? Every small bit counts dude...every bit! after all we are such a HUGE nation and to develop it we need to do small things at regular intervals. We cannot expect to hit BIG in just one strike...Things like do not happen!
And one more thing, America is just something we should not be taking into account when we weigh our nation's problems..they have been an independent nation for really long! Let's not forget we spent almost 200yrs in servitude, now when the time comes to develop our own nation I really think we should look forward and not revel in the past!
No offence to Shivaji, but 340 crores can definitely buy some food!
well, Siddharth, your heated comment is only suggesting, GREAT MAN-> GO OVERBOARD WITH PAYING TRIBUTE. You yourself said, there are multiple statues, there are forts, and we all know we renamed our VT and Sahar to his name.
Going by what you are saying, everything in our country should be a MDK Gandhi statue, why not build gigantic statues for him?
if you think 350 cr is a small sum, you had better get a grasp of numbers. for most of us(middle class citizens) 1 Cr is just about conceivable! this is 350 times that! the cost of a CT scanner is under 10 crores! imagine how much a basic x ray machine would cost? basic medical equipment would cost much much less!
It takes the right direction and smartness to use what money you have well. It could cover the whole 10 yrs of school fees for so many children! or is 350 crs not enough? how about that for one idea?
You living outside Bombay, seem to have forgotten how crowded one delayed train can get. which means, one extra train can do wonders!
Besides, be more circumspect, GOM doesn't have 350 Crs just lying around. its part of a larger figure. who is to say we wont fall short of 300 crs for some other worthy project! or is taking 350 crores out of "12000 crores" nothing at all?
Competing with the US on statues is what a fool would do. if we must emulate the west, we must do it in more sensible ways. Like Sameen said, we have people living in sub humane conditions, and you are suggesting we compete on building statues to commemorate the dead.
Your examples of corrupt individuals is to signify what? better waste the money legitimately than put the effort into making sure the money reaches the right places?
You are needlessly taking offense when there is none to be taken. Not once have i denied he must have been a great guy, but to just keep building statues in his name is a meaningless exercise, since we already have so many things to pay our tribute to him.
Siddharth , u meean unless we have all the money to develop the whole of India we shudnt be doing anything!!!
we can set up a world class university with that money!!
Most of what you guys said is true!!!... Absolutely!!!...
I truly believe that 350 crores is nothing for the govt. One train (like the new ones on western and central lines) costs 80 crores, forget 1, even 10 extra trains will not solve the congestion problems, congestion problem will only be solved if every train carries extra 3 rakes, making every train "pandra dabba", but then every stn will have to be redeveloped, including re spacing signal distances on tracks and a revamped time management system, calculate the cost yourself. It would go way more than 350 crores.
Nikhil, living out of mumbai hasn't made me forget the way things are in mumbai, I have lived in mumbai for 20 years, travelled in rush hour through Kurla morn and eve for 2 years, used the BEST buses for 2 years in 11th,12th which i didnt do in AEJC as u know, but now that I live outside I am sensitive to much more than just mumbai and its needs.
You might find this unbelievable, but in all the guys in my class i am the only one with english education from KG, many of my friends fathers are farmers and i have seen and met a lot of maharashtrians who are not mumbai's marathi manus. People in Mumbai and people in Maharashtra are different man.
And in these people i find a reverence kind feeling for Shivaji Maharaj, as they call him, never Shivaji. This according to me must be respected.
I think the Statue thing is more public propaganda by political parties. As someone rightly said on facebook, the birth place of Shivaji is indeed in a dilapidated condition, but in terms of giving due recognition, Shivaji is very much under-represented, even though we have named the VT and Sahar after him. Just count the number of roads named after M k Gandhi or Indira Gandhi etc. Forget that just think abt how much everyone knows about Gandhi and then compare with general public knowledge abt Shivaji... There is no going overboard here.
Going overboard is what has already been done with Gandhi.
The bandra worli sea link cost 1500 crores, the first phase of mumbai metros cost around 750 crores and the sec phase costs more than 1000 crores. The coffers of Pune university contain more than 400 crores and the BMC has an annual budget of 15000 crores.
A normal family can just about imagine 1 crore?? No!! A normal family cannot even imagine one crore. Nikhil, ur family and mine, we are not normal, we are not even middle class, we are way above. Please, understand that. I understood this after coming to Pune. A normal family doesn't erect statues or monuments either. And for the govt 350 crores is indeed not a large figure.
Now that i read my previous comment, i see that it was worded very aggresively, and might have offended some people, but i apologize for that, especially to Nikhil, the author.
The comments on facebook were so silly and thoughtless. When those reasons were given for not making the Statue, I took is as not making Shivaji's statue. May be there lied my fault, may be they would have given the same reason had it been somebody elses statue.
I think the Statue must be made, but in some place else, not on our dirty waters, mumbai pumps all its untreated sewage 5km into the sea, this statue will be in that filth. And ofcourse this sea project is the reason why the cost has escalated, with the land reclamation and construction and engineering challenges. The cost can be easily cut by a third if we make, as Nikhil said, intelligent choices, which we are not making right now.
But none the less, this statue must be made, and with the intent of commemorating Shivaji, not to show the world we also have something like Statue of Liberty but to show ourselves and our leaders that there stands the example we should all try to emulate.
Again, I apologize for my heated comments if they have offended anyone, and especially to the Author.
@Sameen, boss no offense taken but even more important, none intended. And in govt offices, people who work, they will keep working, and those who dont, they will never work, whatever be the salary. And that "every small bit helps" thing na... its not the money dude, its the small changes in attitude that will help, we have the money, what we dont have is the right attitude. And you are damn right when u say we should not drag america into this, its silly!!
P.s. these are the longest comment i have made in my life, but i am much more passionate about other things.
Sorry for cluttering the comments string but i had to reply to sameen , and the first comment had beome too long which blogger wasn't accepting.... :)
Ok Nikhil tels me Sameen is a girl... So sorry for my mistake in assuming otherwise!! But your comment did not suggest anything and thought its a beautiful name, i have never heard it before!!! So....oops!!! :)
Let me first say, no offense was taken, i know you, and thus I know what your intentions are.
Yes, the intent was to discuss spending amazing sums, not specifically on Shivaji.
The reason why we know so little of Shivaji is not because of lack of statues,its because of lack of telling people. In all these years of renaming and stuff, the bombay community came out with one film on him. which not many people saw.
No one is letting people do studies, or documentaries or write their commentaries about the person. They are afraid some new embarrassing truth may come out, which they will effectively BAN!
A case in point being James Laine's- "A Hindu King in Islamic India. "
I fully accept that he must have been a great man, but sadly building a statue will not tell me more about it. Gandhi is not famous just because every road is named after him. First his effects were for all of India, and is relatively fresh in peoples minds. It was the age of knowledge so everyone knew him and his methods, enough to have Einstein say " never will people believe that such a man once walked the face of the Earth"
PLus you have movies like Gandhi, Munna Bhai 2, that are about him in one way or the other.
Spend that 350 crores in bringing out information about him. Thats teh way to do what you are saying ought to be done.
Indian's are plainly hypocrites, we are proud that englishmen exposed our ugly underbelly viz. slums, but hate it when someone speaks the "ugly" truth about "revered" persons.
@Siddharth: Yes siddharth I am a girl! And Thank you! I like reading this keep going!
@ Sameen : A pic definitely aids judgement AND also proves the claim !!! :)
What Nix said makes absolute sense, and in fact there ARE many movies but all in marathi, there is even a very popular TV serial, but again in marathi, this language barrier must be transcended somehow...
@Sidharth: The pic is cos I was signed into my blog at that time. And so I have finally established on this string of comments that I am a girl :P
I have not had much time to read the entire string of comments before this but I did just now!
Guys you really think this nation does not have any other work left to be done other than erecting statues and getting to know about all the great ppl that went by?
I may sound a little indifferent but from all that I have learnt in a while now I really think we should let the bygones be bygones. I feel really sorry for the state of affairs of our country. You really think we should spend time in erecting statues and renaming buildings? I admit we must know about the historical figures but not like this. I think that should be restricted to History textbooks and very beautifully done so there!
What was Mayavati thinking when she went unveiling statues? What are the politicians thinking by claiming in public about going 'austere'? If something has to be done now, it should be done instead of harping on and on about it!
Take look at the farmers who are committing suicide for just a debt of 10,000 rupees. What about ppl who are facing drought? What about the ppl suffering from Swine flu? What about employment for the unemployed? Who will think about all that?
Is erecting statues and renaming roads all we got left to do?
The passion reflected in the comments above is truly inspirational. I had given up on blogs for some time now!!
Nikhil has a point when he questions the necessity of extravagantly spending public money on a monument.
Sid has a point when he feels disgusted that the social elite of today collectively mocks the idea of a monument and more importantly the person it is supposed to commemorate.
Sameen is a girl!!
and a pretty one at that. ;)
Now thats kinda captured the essence of what has been discussed on this forum so far!!
Heres my tidbit of opinion on this.
The feasibility of such a monument is a contentious issue. It may have its merits and demerits. It is convenient for the 'non-cattle class' citizenry to cite the dismal conditions all around and reinforce stereotypes. That being said, the greatness of the man and his conquests should in no way demand recognition but command it. Let any man respect or revere any other man of his own volition.
That was a media hoax
if you guys would only get your facts right ... maybe you would spare yourselves all these pointless arguments and altercations
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