Political Diary
New
Delhi, 13 March 2018
Politics Of Statues
PAST FIXATION AT
PRESENT COST
By Poonam I Kaushish
It’s been a week of
stark contradictions in India’s ongoing political nautanki. Seven days when we stood witness to the public mask and
private face of our netagan. Replete
with State-funded narcissism at one end, interspersed with our polity’s
experiments in untruth. At one end, Parliament was paralysed over Congress’s
Karti Chidabaram vs BJP’s Nirav Modi,
Mehul Choksi. On the other, the Saffron Sangh celebrated their electoral
victory in three North Eastern States by bringing down a Communist edifice,
beginning a tit-for-tat.
See how our Hindutva
Brigade saw “red” over a Comrade Lenin statue in Tripura following the Left
Front’s defeat there. A statue of BJP leader SP Mukherjee was defiled in
Kolkata as Bengal Chief Minister Mamata condemned the Lenin felling. Ambedkar
and Periyar statues in UP and Tamil Nadu too were vandalized and BJP’s
Coimbatore office was petrol bombed after its National Secretary said Periyar
statues should be razed. All caring two hoots for public perception or
maintaining politesse and decorum.
Am
I surprised? No. Invariably, a change in
Government is followed by iconoclasm whereby statues and other memorabilia are
often targets of retribution by the victorious Party confident that there will
be no retribution. True, it can be argued with politics being a demanding
profession our leaders are obliged to show tangible results, what better than
statues, perfect symbols of rabble rousing content, exemplifying an ideological
and communal divide.
Questionably,
is the polity afraid of
a clash of ideas in our public life? Why are we so obsessed with pulling down
old statues and putting up new ones? Shouldn’t we be solving more pressing
problems like eliminating poverty, generating employment, security challenges
posed by the China-Pakistan axis? Do dead icons matter more than living people?
If every Government
takes it upon itself to pull down old statues and erect new ones, what’s to
prevent the next of opposing ideology from replacing your icons with
its own? Is it mere coincidence or a sign of an increasingly knee-jerk,
reactionary country where one is forced to go public about icons?
Shockingly, thousands of crores of rupees are
poured into new statues every year. A 182 metres huge statue of Sardar Patel
(double the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York) called the Statue of
Unity is being constructed at Sadhu Bet, an island 3 kms from the Sardar
Sarovar Dam in Gujarat costing Rs 4,000 crores
is billed as the tallest sculpture in the world. Another giant Shivaji
statue off Mumbai is expected to cost Rs 3,600 crores.
Remember Dalit ki beti Mayawati who cast herself in
stone in sprawling parks across the State. Spending a mind-boggling Rs 1200
crores of hard-earned tax-payers money to prop up her own statues and those of her mentor Kanshi
Ram. With a few figures of Ambedkar thrown in to give the 15 massive memorials
a touch of respectability.
Other leaders are no
different. It’s all about leaving behind a legacy for future generation. Else who will remember one? Besides, aren’t
memorials part of the fishes and loaves of office? Look at the huge bronze
statues of powerful leaders-to-eka-duka
Party chieftains coming out of every nook and corner of Parliament house and
its surrounding areas.
State-sponsored memorials
are unabashed political projects, and no Party is an exception to this
practice. Ironically even as the Congress lambasts the memorial sprees of
others they seem to forget and refuse to explain the logic of naming nearly
every airport, most Government statutory institutions and cultural hubs after
the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty? Justifying it as ‘honourable collectively remembering
national” leaders. Notwithstanding, both Gandhi and Nehru and strongly
disapproved statues and iconoclasm.
Ditto the BJP which
is busy installing statues or busts of RSS and Jan Sangh leader Deendayal
Upadhyay in all 683 districts of the country. A part of his Centenary
celebration being coordinated by the Culture Ministry for which Rs 100 crores has
been allocated. The DMK too is memorial mania driven.
In fact, Tamil Nadu
is looked as the badlands of memorials. In 1961, Congress leader Kamaraj built
his statue and got Nehru to unveil it. As the Party was waning with the DMK’s
meteoric rise, it resorted to inscribing the cityscape with memorials as a part
of its political propaganda.
When the DMK came to
power in 1967, it lined up statues of its own leaders on the same road where
Kamaraj had his statue unveiled. Worse, houses of Congress leaders Nehru,
Shastri and Indira are now memorials. Undoubtedly, politicians and Parties use
statutes to expand their base and political footprints to areas they have very
little influence. Cast in stone or metal, they plan to take their icons to
every nook and corner of the country, thereby following the well-trodden path
of political competitiveness.
But even as they
destroy the old, one needs to realise the past is never dead and cannot be denied or wished away. By
destroying statues we are only showcasing tokenism which is an exercise in
futility. Given it symbolized an ideology which was once powerful and
influential and was an instrument in propelling society forward.
In the ultimate, this
vandalism underscores the narrow-minded climate of political discourse we live
in wherein objects, art, cinematic and cultural freedom can be twisted and
misrepresented to suit our ‘holy cows’
netas narrow ends, shore up their image and commitment to their beliefs and
ideology.
Alas, the country is
in the grip of self-styled chauvinism and cultural dogmas. Whereby, the
political class exploits the common man’s emotions and only looks at what will
help popularize it more with its vote bank. Even if its amounts to heading
towards an era of intolerance and cultural terrorism.
Given our narcissist
polity with a penchant for lack of integrity we need to evolve a code of
governance. Our netagan need to
remember a home-truth: With power comes responsibility. Who will tell them that
destruction or bhoomi pujans are an
invitation to disaster and statues are neither necessities or vital to
enriching the aam aadmi’s life and
providing him roti kapada aur makaan.
Those who reduce the level of discourse to such depths only do so at the cost
of exposing their lack of civility to the electorate and the nation at large.
Clearly, our leaders need to be tolerant as populism will
only provide immediate succour at the expense of the future. Importantly, no
quarter should be given to those who fan hatred among people and communities.
Be it a Hindu fundamentalist, Left thinker or Muslim militant. All are
destroyers of the State, which has no religious entity. Thus, our moral angst
cannot be selective but should be just, honourable and equal.
The message should ring loud
and clear that no person, group or organization can threaten violence, and if
they do, they lose their democratic right to be heard. India could do without netas who distort politics. Alongside no
licence should be given to anyone from any background to spread hatred or
ill-feeling towards any community.
One is free not accepting a
statue, statement or view of others, it is a matter of perception. What is objectionable
to one might be normal to another. Plainly, the speed with which our tolerance
is falling to fragile levels is scary. As Confucius said: Study the past if you
would define the future. ---- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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