By D N Singh
Not many years ago in India there was good percentage of employment and a worthy of recall of peace, although not the significant equality.
However, since last five years or so, there has been a sustained drive to en-capsule the chart of achievement like, employment or equality or peace, as a virtual tokenism and the aspects are concised to some statues built at a humongous cost from the public exchequer.
It is not that public money’s overdo on such tokenism is first time but it started at a feverish pitch in Uttar Pradesh under Mayawati regime when an area was dotted with several statues on profile pushing in politics.
That was an overdrive that practically dissolved a lot of real progress on the ground through such hideous ostentations, the people paid for.
In last five years or so, similar tokenism got a renewed pace and in the worst of time when Indian economy, employment and social harmony, panted for a real succor, the country witnessed yet another phase of statue building to promote some obvious goals.
Statue of Unity was built at a whopping sum of Rs. 2898 crore to remember Sardar Patel. While its overall cost was pegged to Rs.3000 cr including subsequent repairs and touch ups. It is a mammoth replica of the Iron Man to remind the nation of Sardar Patel’s courage behind national integration.
The Shivaji Memorial Statue in Maharashtra is being built at a staggering Rs.3, 600 crore. Interestingly, the statute of the Maratha hero will be visible in its half-built state in the Arabian sea, 1.5 km from the Mumbai shoreline opposite Marine Drive. However, the statue could not be completed post an order from the Supreme Court order to halt its construction in last January.
At an estimated cost of Rs.2, 500 cr, to he Lord Ram Statute is planned to be in Ayodhya, supposedly the tallest statue in the world shall be 251 metres high in the city of Lord Ram.
A 215-metre tall of Lord Hanuman will be installed at Karnataka’s Pampapur Kishkindha. Kishkindha is located on the outskirts of Hampi in northern district of Ballari, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The statue is estimated to cost around Rs 1,200 crore.
Then comes the name of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. His statue is under construction and to be located in Mumbai measuring 137.3 meter and it will be the third tallest statue in the world after Statue of Unity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already unveiled a life-size statue of Swami Vivekananda on JNU campus on November 12. Once the news was put out in the public domain, all through the remaining part of 2017 and the entire 2018, the administration remained mum on who was funding the statue and how much it would cost. More details on the height of the statue or where exactly it would be constructed are also not reveal Even the statue’s cost not revealed as yet and who funds it.
In a repeat of the curiosity, yet another statue of Swami Vivekananda is to be installed in Bengaluru whose cost has not been revealed yet.
In total, in last five years, the money spent on construction of statues stands at Rs.10, 089 crore which excludes the cost of two statues of Vivekananda in JNU in Delhi and the other in Bengaluru.
Fine, such national icons deserve the honours but the splurges should not have been timed with a time when the nation wants more focus on other very basic needs rather than tokenisms.
