TRYSTS AND TURNS: The fear that haste may lead to waste does not seem to worry the authorities
A 35-ft statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the great Maratha warrior known for his guerrilla warfare skills — which he successfully used against the Mughals — was knocked down by strong winds blowing across the coastal town of Malwan in the Konkan region of Maharashtra.
The pressure to complete works expeditiously, which is happening often when elections are round the corner, should
be avoided.
The statue had been erected in a hurry prior to the Lok Sabha elections this year to permit Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate it. Modi, always willing to perform such pre-election chores, obliged. Just six months later, he was forced to apologise for the mishap, though he himself could hardly be blamed for nature’s vagaries. His sycophants were the real culprits.
Around Rs 83 crore were spent on the statue’s construction, which was entrusted to the Navy in deference to the memory of Maratha admiral Kanhoji Angre, who commanded the Maratha navy in those glorious days. The original plan, it now appears, was to build a six-ft statue and the design for it was scrutinised and approved by the Directorate of Art as per the prescribed procedure. One wonders who raised its height and why. Those who would have claimed credit for the statue will now seek anonymity for valid security concerns.
Stories of incompetence and blatant corruption are doing the rounds, all leading to the doorstep of Mahayuti leaders Eknath Shinde, the Maharashtra Chief Minister who leads a faction of the Shiv Sena, and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, one of the two deputy chief ministers. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, who abandoned his uncle Sharad Pawar for personal aggrandisement, is the other Deputy CM, but he has distanced himself from his partners because he had sensed the Maratha anger against the toppling of the statue.
The BJP realises that Ajit is proving to be a liability in the three-party alliance. Ajit’s uncle still commands the loyalty of the Maratha community, as was proved in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Fadnavis, the BJP’s loyal pointsman in the state, had erroneously calculated that the ambitious Ajit would be able to bring in the bulk of the NCP’s vote bank, but that was not to be. Sharad continues to be the Maratha strongman, despite his advancing age and ill health.
Ajit’s tirade against his friends in the Mahayuti is not going to help him advance his political career. At present, it has only succeeded in weakening the ruling alliance’s chances of retaining power. The molestation of two four-year-old girls in a school at Badlapur in Thane district had already done harm to the fortunes of the Mahayuti. And now, nature has joined forces with the Opposition MVA (Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi), led by the Congress and consisting of a resurgent Shiv Sena-UBT (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the presently dominant Sharad-led faction of the NCP.
As of today, the dice is loaded against the parties in power. The BJP had made inroads in urban areas of the state. It will hold on to its voters, but the two parties on whose strength it relied will not be able to contribute to the extent Fadnavis expected them to do. In fact, there is the distinct possibility of the NCP’s Ajit faction gradually fading into oblivion. When the foot soldiers find that their leader will not be able to provide the expected goodies, they will gravitate to those in a position to oblige.
Reverting to the matter of the statue, it is quite obvious to even the poorly informed that such construction needs expertise of a superior calibre. It also needs supervision of a higher order with officials for the purpose being chosen from among those with a reputation for integrity. Fortunately, there still remain many in the IAS with that qualification.
The pressure to complete works expeditiously, which is happening often when elections are round the corner, should be avoided. The PM inaugurated the new Parliament building in a bit of a hurry and very soon it developed leakages and defects. Modi did not apologise for that fiasco like he did for the fall of Shivaji’s statue! According to his statement, the Maratha warrior was a ‘god’. Agreed that a building cannot be deified, but a Parliament building is a sacred place, because like the poet Byron wrote about the Castle of Chillon in Switzerland, “May none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God.”
A massive project is underway in my city of Mumbai. It is the Coastal Road project that has reclaimed acres and acres of land from the sea to decongest the heavy traffic caused by the proliferation of cars. The work goes on relentlessly day and night since targets are set (as they should be) and important leaders are eager to inaugurate even minor sections of the project.
The fear that haste may lead to waste does not seem to worry the authorities like it worries thinking citizens. I remember the car journey I took once from Kowloon to the mainland of Hong Kong through an undersea tunnel. It was a feat of engineering. A similar tunnel was a part of Mumbai’s Coastal Road. Very soon, it developed leaks. When the media carried the news, many senior citizens decided against travelling by car through that tunnel. I am told that the leaks have been patched. That is a consolation, but why are we so tolerant of shoddy work which is inevitable if it has to be completed in a hurry to accommodate leaders who want their names embossed on stone?
Bihar has not yet received its annual quota of rainfall, but as soon as the first showers fell, as many as a dozen newly constructed bridges collapsed! In Rajkot (Gujarat), a bridge collapse resulted in the death of car passengers.
Are our engineers and contractors incompetent or, as is more likely, have they dipped their hands into the till? Since no one is held responsible and punished, Modi’s promise of remaining squeaky clean himself and ensuring that his administrators also remain above board is like his promise to show no mercy to those convicted of molesting women — only an empty promise meant for luring voters to keep double-engine governments in office.