Mumbai: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Lok Sabha leader of opposition, on Thursday lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue in Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra. Calling the incident an insult to the legendary Maratha King, Gandhi demanded that PM Modi should apologise to every Maharashtrian people.
“The statue collapsed just a few months after it was constructed. This is an insult to Shivaji Maharaj,” Gandhi said.
On the apology tendered by Modi over the collapse of the statue, Gandhi said that Maharashtra and the country want to know why the Prime Minister apologized. He alleged that the contract to construct the statue was given to an RSS worker.
“One who does wrong, apologies. If you haven’t done anything wrong, why would you apologise? I want to ask the prime minister what he is sorry for? Is it because the contract to make the Shivaji statue was given to an RSS person who had no merit or for the corruption in the construction of the statue,” he added.
The Prime Minister should apologize to every resident of Maharashtra for what happened. You (PM) built the statue to commemorate Shivaji Maharaj’s legacy, but could not make sure that it stands firm, the Congress MP said.
A 35-feet giant statue of the Maratha empire founder Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, unveiled by Prime Minister barely eight months ago on the occasion of Navy Day celebrations, collapsed at Rajkot Fort in Malvan on August 26.
With the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra coming under severe fire over the collapse of the statue, the prime minister during his subsequent visit to the state said he apologised to the iconic king, calling him his ‘deity,’ and also the people whose sentiments were hurt.
Gandhi was in Maharashtra to inaugurate a statue of late party leader Patangrao Kadam in Sangli. “I give you a guarantee that Kadam ji's statue installed here will stand even after 50–70 years,” he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar attended the function in Sangli. But ally Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray was conspicuous by his absence on this occasion.
