Congress has torn into Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the collapse of a 35-foot statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Maharashtra. They have asked if Modi would tender an apology for putting his interests above the memory of the founder of the Maratha empire.
Opposition parties have attacked the Maharashtra government after a statue collapses at Rajkot Fort on Monday. The Statue was unveiled by Modi on December 4 last year during Navy Day Celebrations.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted a video on X of Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurating a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue in Pratapgad in 1957 and said, “67 years later, the statue still stands tall and undamaged.”
Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal accused Modi and the Maharashtra administration of rushing through the statue’s construction only to ensure its inauguration by the PM ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “In true Modi fashion, the priority was to hurriedly construct a statue on 3 months’ notice, so that it is inaugurated by the PM just before elections,” said Venugopal in an X post. The worse part is that this shoddy job had come for Rs. 236 crores! Will PM Modi apologize to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj for putting his own personal ambitions above Maharaj’s legacy?
“Venugopal also criticizes PM’s response to allegations of corruption related to hasty-opened projects, listing many of the buildings that, shortly after being inaugurated, have since faced issues: “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Statue at Sindhudurg Fort: Inauguration: December 2023; Collapse: August 2024; Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link: Inauguration: January 2024, cracks appear: June 2024; Mumbai Coastal Road: Inauguration: March 2024; Leakage: May 2024; Jabalpur Airport: Inauguration: March 2024; roof collapse: June 2024; Sudarshan Setu Bridge (Gujarat The MVA also announced that it would organize a protest march against the state government over the statue collapse. Uddhav Thackeray accused the Eknath Shinde dispensation of resorting to blame high velocity winds for the incident.