- Unusual voice in Bollywood against statue splurge
SATISH NANDGAONKAR
Mumbai, Sept. 20: Music director Vishal Dadlani has done what Bollywood stars usually dare not — get on the wrong side of politicians.
The man who set the scores for Om Shanti Om (with partner Shekhar Ravjiani) has started an online signature campaign against the state government’s plans to erect a Rs 350-crore statue of Shivaji on the Marine Drive waterfront.
Shivaji is an icon in Maharashtra, with a powerful political party drawing its identity from his legacy and any perceived slur on the legendary Maratha ruler prone to invite vandal attacks.
Dadlani’s move, however, is rapidly gaining support from Mumbai residents, with the number of signatories on his website http://smallchange.in jumping from 11,500 to 12,123 in just an hour on Friday and reaching 13,766 on Sunday.
Dadlani, 36, lead singer of Pentagram and known as a cool dude with a cool head, plans to file a public interest litigation in Bombay High Court against the statue project after the number of signatures reaches 25,000.
The online petition says the sum of Rs 350 crore should be used better rather than be wasted on political tokenism, aimed at winning Maratha votes in the October Assembly elections
“We mean no disrespect to the memory of Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who was a truly great and able king…. We feel that the proposed statue/memorial… is an unnecessary expense for the exchequer…” the petition says.
Although Bollywood’s big stars have not joined in, at least so far, Dadlani’s campaign has received a thumbs-up from filmmakers Farhan Akhtar and sister Zoya Akhtar.
“I have not specifically approached any Bollywood personalities. If they strongly believe in what I am doing, they are welcome to join in,” Dadlani said.
Such citizen’s campaigns against government projects may not be common in India, but Mumbai has already witnessed a mass anti-politician mood after the 26/11 attacks, which is when Dadlani launched his website to campaign for restrained TV coverage of terror attacks. The current campaign began late last month.
Dadlani is probably not risking the wrath of Bal Thackeray, whom none in Bollywood would want to annoy. The Shiv Sena has not opposed the project for obvious reasons but has termed it political opportunism by the Congress-NCP government.
Even the 14-party Republic Left Democratic Front, made up of the Dalit parties, the Left and the Samajwadi Party, has not opposed the statue. Instead, its poll manifesto promises a similar statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Arabian Sea.
In his message on the website, Mumbai resident Sandeep Bhasin compares the state government’s move with Mayavati’s statue obsession.
“On one hand we are made to believe that Congress believes in Sonia’s austerity drive and on the other, we witness waste of taxpayers’ money in absolutely meaningless memorials for political gains,” he writes.
Vispi Elavia requests the state’s chief justice “to pass a law wherein politicians don’t waste public money on statues”.
Dadlani, who set the foot-tapping music for Bachna Ae Haseeno and Dostana recently, says creating an island for the statue off the Marine Drive waterfront could obstruct the proposed extension of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link to Nariman Point.
“The memorial would be smack in the path of the proposed Sea Link (expansion), and the island would be created at huge environmental cost.”
Dadlani says the funds could be put to better use, such as providing succour to drought-hit farmers or improving Mumbai’s pot-holed roads.
“We could certainly do with more schools/colleges, providing education to the underprivileged at no cost. These could all be named in memory of Shivaji.”
After the Supreme Court's reprimand of Mayawati in UP, I am surprised at the Maharashtra Government's indescretion in trying to erect statues of Shivaji.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
The Supreme Court cannot disallow one and allow another.
It would give a handle to Mayawati of establishing her claim that the court was anti-dalit.
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