India is a land of big statues. It has many big statues. The world’s biggest statue ‘Statue of Unity’ is located on banks of river Narmada in Gujarat. This statue is that of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Its height is 590 feet. Statue of Shivaji Maharaj is being constructed in the Arabian sea. Its height would be 696 feet. The Statue of equality of Ambedkar is planned at a height of 450 feet. It is being constructed in Mumbai. Another statue of equality that of Ramanuja is planned at Shamshabad with a height of 260 feet. The statue of Lord Shiva Shree Abhdhunath Mahadev is planned in Delhi with a height of 201 feet. The statue of Lord Hanuman with a height of 176 feet is planned in Andhra Pradesh. The UP Government is planning to install a statue of Lord Ram at 221 feet. A big statue of Subhas Chandra Bose is also planned.
All my countrymen and women’s heads have risen in the last 7-8 years. They are looking upwards. Because only by raising their heads they can watch the big statues. This is also true of foreigners who come to India. They lift their heads to watch the statues. The statues have increased the prestige of the country. It shows that India thinks big and it is entering into a 5 trillion economy.
The big statues show how generous the country is. It is willing to spend thousands of crores on structures and make people lift their heads. I feel gratitude to our great leaders who each single day are coming out with new ideas for constructing big statues. They are creating statues everywhere – in the sea, in the rivers, on the land. There would be statues that would also come up on mountains. I would also like to see flying statues, swimming statues apart from standing statues. There is no doubt in saying that statues and India are two sides of the same coin. More than schools, hospitals, India needs statues. The Government truly believes – divert public investments from schools, hospitals to statues.
The architect of the idea of big statues to increase national glory is our honourable Prime Minister. He has set the trend of big statues which the other chief ministers have started to follow. I feel proud that the prime minister, the chief ministers are coming forward to make India into a powerful country – a land of big statues.
The purpose of statues is not to promote their ideas, but just to appropriate them, disassociating them from their thoughts. Constructing a big statue of Ambedkar is not to promote his idea of justice and equality, but to show that we are with Ambedkar. Construction of the statue of Subhas Chandra Bose is not to promote his ideas of socialism, freedom, and equality but to use his popularity among Indian people to garner votes. Increasing their physical heights and lowering their thoughts is the new mantra of our regime.
While on the one hand, India builds its big statues of popular leaders to gain on their popularity, it also sees attacks on statues. The last few years have seen attacks on the statues of Ambedkar, Periyar, Gandhi by the followers of the right wing ideology. This is because for them these symbols represent the rights of the marginalised. While on the one attacks are allowed among the followers on these symbols, on the opposite side there are statue construction activities of the same people.
Our leaders have found the idea of statue construction also as a mantra to boost employment. At a time when the unemployment problem has increased, big statues are a solution to the unemployment problem. More the number of big statues that emerge throughout the country, more would be the tourist flow. With the growth of tourism, it will create employment opportunities. Thus unemployment would be reduced. It is hitting two birds with one stone i.e., building political capital out of their popularity as well as addressing unemployment. To address the problem of unemployment, there should be statues everywhere – in gram panchayats, colonies etc.
Very soon, I would like India to be recognized as the land of the big statues.
Author: An Indian Citizen
