Politics has heated up after the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj fell in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. Actually, this whole matter is getting bigger because the statue was unveiled in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, both Deputy CMs Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis on Navy Day in the month of December last year. Then BJP had also given the slogan that Chhatrapati’s blessings… with PM Modi. The politics of the state has heated up due to the statue falling 8 months after its unveiling.
There is no uniformity in the reaction that has come from the Mahayuti after the fall of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s statue. The first reaction in this matter came from CM Eknath Shinde. He had earlier said that the statue was built by the Navy, not by the Maharashtra government. The statue was unveiled on Navy Day, we were supporting the Navy. He also said that this happened due to strong winds. However, after the controversy increased in this matter, today CM Shinde has apologized and announced to build a bigger statue as soon as possible.
Devendra Fadnavis had said this
In this case, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was made by the Navy, it is possible that the persons responsible for the construction and installation of the statue may have ignored important factors such as high wind speed and the quality of the iron used. He had said that due to exposure to sea winds, the statue may be at a higher risk of rusting.
What did the PWD department say in the FIR?
However, after the statue fell, the PWD department of the Maharashtra government filed an FIR, in which it was said that the PWD department had given the contract of making the statue to a sculptor who is a resident of Thane. Later it also came to light that the responsibility of maintaining the statue was of the PWD department of the Maharashtra government. Due to this the matter became more heated. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government tried to shrug off the matter, but on the other hand the matter was of the Navy, so it is obvious that it could not completely put the responsibility on the other side.
Ashish Shelar apologized
Actually, the matter was related to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and whenever matters related to Shivaji Maharaj have come up in the state, politics has taken a turn, so it was better to apologize. First of all, Mumbai President of Bharatiya Janata Party Ashish Shelar gave a statement that he is apologizing on behalf of the government, while Ashish Shelar is not a minister or holds any post in the government, but is a big leader of the ruling party, so he gave this statement.
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar also apologized
Earlier, there was silence from the NCP in this matter, because Deputy CM Ajit Pawar did not give any statement on this. But Ajit Pawar said in a public rally on Wednesday that he apologizes to the people of Maharashtra, the incident that happened is wrong, action will be taken on it. A new statue will be installed there as soon as possible.
Politics had heated up earlier also on the issue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
According to political experts, the government is also afraid because in 2004, when Shiv Sena and BJP were in opposition and a Congress and NCP coalition government was running in Maharashtra under the leadership of Sushil Kumar Shinde, a foreign author James Lane wrote a book on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in which he had published some statements about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which were based on hearsay. There was a lot of uproar over this. At that time, the ruling Congress and NCP had demanded action against James Lane and a ban on his book across the country. However, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had said that banning the book would not fix the matter. If you find something wrong in the book, then write another book and speak clearly on it. Congress and NCP made it a political issue, due to which the situation changed despite the wind being in favor of Shiv Sena and BJP and the Congress-NCP government was formed again in Maharashtra in 2004.
Three questions arose when the statue fell
For example, BJP knows that emotions are aroused. Three questions are being asked about this. First, was the statue installed in a hurry? Second, the Prime Minister himself came to unveil the statue, so did BJP-NCP and Shiv Sena do this for political gain? And the third question is, if the statue fell within 8 months, was the statue not built properly or was there any irregularity in awarding the contract?
Mahayuti government tried to do damage control
Experts say that apart from this incident, there was a possibility of an atmosphere being created against the Mahayuti government, because on one hand the Mahayuti government was trying to create an atmosphere through the Ladki Bahin Yojana, when the Badlapur incident came to light. Therefore, an attempt was made by BJP and Ajit Pawar to demand forgiveness. On the other hand, when Aditya Thackeray went to inspect the statue site with party workers, BJP MP Narayan Rane and his sons raised slogans against the workers of the Uddhav faction. Due to this, a situation of confrontation arose on the spot. At the same time, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray are going to take out a rally on Sunday i.e. September 1. For example, on one hand the opposition is coming together in Mumbai, on the other hand the Mahayuti is trying to hush up the matter by apologizing to cool it down. For immediate damage control, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has talked about forming a committee, but after the way the atmosphere heated up after Narayan Rane’s statement, there is again a concern about how to do damage control.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)