Cracks in Maratha bodies over Shivaji statue

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, October 28

Long festering differences between various bodies representing the powerful Maratha community in Maharashtra have come to the fore over the construction of a statue for Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj off Mumbai.

After one person drowned earlier this week after a speedboat carrying some members of the press and political activists hit a rock, several Maratha organisations have distanced themselves from the proposal to build the statue in the sea. Organisations like the Maratha Seva Sangh and Sambhaji Brigade who have been in the forefront of protests for reservation for the community in educational institutions and government jobs are saying that the statue could be built inland instead of being constructed off the Mumbai coast.

"Please build a statue for Shivaji in Raigad district (near Mumbai) so that people do not die while trying to see it," Praveen Gaikwad, state president of Sambhaji Brigade, said at an event on Saturday. He added that the statue could be built at Raigad fort, which was the capital of Shivaji.

Purshottam Khedekar, president, Maratha Seva Sangh felt that the site chosen by the Maharashtra government—off Raj Bhavan in South Mumbai was unsuitable—for the statue to the rock outcrop, which extends far out to sea. This, he said, posed a danger for passenger vessels ferrying tourists to the statue.

However, the Devendra Fadnavis government is wooing a section of the Maratha community by getting the chief of Shiv Sangram, Vinayak Mete, to head the committee that chose the venue for the Shivaji Memorial.

Mete, whose Shiv Sangram is seen as a relatively light-weight entity in Maratha politics, is however said to be close to the Sangh parivar.