In 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' the surreal Gandhi speaks through Munnabhai to remove all his staues, not naming any roads etc. This has a lesson for India. We know that Maharashtra is burning because the head of the statue of the respected and national leader Baba Ambedkar was removed in faraway Kanpur. At one level it indicates that Dalits have been discriminated and this act of desecration acted as a fuse that has exploded. It only indicates that the politicians are only paying lip service in respect of giving due recognition to Dalits in society. But it also calls for some sort of regulation for installation of staues. For example statues of Mahatma Gandhi and other political leaders are springing up at every street corner losing its sanctity. Similarly the roads have been named after them in every city, town, village that it has lost its significance. Also intitutiions, game parks and what not are being named after these politicians.It is time this practice is stopped by some severe regulation. In fact in respect of people like Baba Ambedkar who have made profound impact , the best thing is to institute chairs in universities. As regards staues, perhaps the prominence should be given to poets and thinkers.
One, Churchill felt, those whose stautues are put up in Public places, should also be given a rifle to shoot down the pigeons who unerringly aim their droppings right on the head!
Second, with unruly elements in every community turning from being vocal to goondaism, have statues lost their relevance? When communities are itching for a fight at the drop of a beedi,and give vent to their feelings by garlanding their supposed rivals with shoes ; when they do despicable things to statues in the name of religion to arouse blind passion, isn't there a case for banning statues altogether? Public places have become space for goondas to congregate at night to do all kinds of illicit things including vandalism. In a country such as ours, it's easy to arouse passion and unleash uncontrlled violence as it happened when Statue of Bal Thackeray's wife was desecreted last year. We should have statues only in museums and in places where they can be given safe custody.
