Statutes or memorials of great warriors or leaders is vote bank politics of its very best but that unfortunately doesn’t serve any purpose other than being merely cosmetic or symbolic. Can Maharashtra really afford to spend 3600 crores on a memorial to be built in the Arabian sea to honour Shivaji Maharaj when thousands of debt ridden farmers in the state are committing suicide for want of any source of income.
One tend to agree with MNS chief Raj Thackeray when he opines that an better option to remember Shivaji was to restore the monumental Shivneri fort which the great warrior used for many a warfare and that would have been an fitting tribute to the memory of the Maratha warrior which could have saved the tax payers money. People of this great nation would remember Shivaji for his warfare skills that gave freedom to the poor and not for the memorial that is being built in his name. Let us set our priorities right, else this would be set a wrong precedence and we would end up spending Iumpsum money on memorials to honour leaders and politicians in the years to come.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
