New Delhi: The Congress has upped the ante over the fall of a Chhatrapati Shivaji statue and would make corruption behind the fiasco a major poll plank ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls.
“Chhatrapati Shivaji is the biggest icon and revered across the state. How could his statue fall down in just nine months. Certainly, there is corruption involved in the poor quality of construction. We will protest the issue,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
The statue located in Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg district was inaugurated by PM Modi in December 2023 in the presence of CM Eknath Shinde, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CM Ajit Pawar. The 35 feet tall structure fell down on Aug 26.
Dua slammed the government’s reasoning that the statue fell due to winds up to 45 km per hour and pointed out that another statue of Shivaji installed in 1956 by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the Pratapgad fort was intact and a statue of social reformer Lokmanya Tilak's at Girgaon Chowpatty in Mumbai in 1993 also stood tall.
“When you claim credit for something, you must also take responsibility if it goes wrong,” said Dua.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said the fall of Shivaji’s statue had hurt the sentiments of the people.
“There should be an FIR over the Central and State government. Besides the contractor, the governments are also responsible for the fiasco,” Patole told ETV Bharat.
“We will protest against this and other corruption in the state government ahead of the polls. The people are fed up with this government,” he said.
Patole pointed out that a similar way the Atal Setu inaugurated by the PM earlier had developed cracks showing corruption involved in the mega infrastructure project.
According to the Maharashtra unit chief, the Congress allies Shiv Sena UBT and NCP-SP were also hurt over the fall of Shivaji’s statue and would protest the issue along with the grand old party.
“There will be a major protest in Mumbai on Sep 1 over the corruption involved in the Shivaji statue. We will also take the matter to the people across the state,” said Patole.
According to Dua, the BJP and its allies had scant regards for the Maharashtra icon and for that reason the Congress and its allies had also protested against the relocation of the Shivaji statue inside the Parliament Complex to an obscure corner dubbed as the “Prerna Sthal” by the Modi government which also housed the iconic statue of Mahatma Gandhi among other leaders.
“When the opposition protested in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue located right at the entrance of the Parliament House, it showcased our democratic tradition. Now that statue has been relegated to a corner to avoid such protests. But the opposition is not going to give up,” said Dua.
Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said the party had unveiled a charge sheet against the Mahayuti government in July and would flag that crime and the drug menace had grown while corruption was pervading all sectors.
