Sivaji Ganesan or Sardar Patel do not need sculpting in stone to sustain themselves in people’s memories. Their immortality has been sealed for posterity in more stable, secure and superior portals. Indeed, several past greats who have been put up for public view in the last few decades often for petty political purposes, would have squirmed at a such suggestion in their life time. But, many are now immovably cast as silent spectators to the shameful spectacles being carried on in their name right under their nose. Also, their families, fans and genuine followers would rather not have their statues in the first place than seeing them being lowered later from the pedestals, physically as well as metaphorically.
The Madras HC ruling ordering the removal of Sivaji Ganesan’s statue on the grounds of traffic obstruction, is therefore not a slight on the thespian. On the contrary it is a commentary on the statue culture that dogs the nation, State and the streets and a ‘slab’ in the face of those who revel in statue-politics. In most cities and towns, one can cross hardly a kilometre or two without encountering, not any ancient work of art, but a long dead or recently demised personality standing tall in stone, in a fancy pose, either pointing a finger at nowhere in particular, clutching a literary work, hands folded or on hips or just in purported intellectual repose. Truth be said, the poor leaders hardly evoke the emotional effect that those who invoke them intend. Many draw more crows than crowds. Still, the proportion of statues per hundred of living population or metres of moving space is now an alarming statistic. Make it ‘Statuestic’.
Traffic signals, crossroads and street corners are favoured haunts, but beach fronts and prime real estate too have been committed to memory irrevocably, at great expense and across great expanses too. Considering future demand, Marina would need a huge sea reclamation while Delhi’s sundry Sultans buried deep underneath will have to do with less skeleton space to accommodate the political Mughals waiting upstairs for their respective dates with their Maker. If the idol breakers and iconoclasts of rational TN, who wanted to blast out every God-form in their vicinity, however, had no qualms about casting their own Dravidian idols in stone, let alone worshipping them, up above in UP Mayawati, in her time, broke all records and launched a statue planting spree that have er, left no idle stone unturned. While Ambedkars and Elephant symbols, sprouted suddenly everywhere like in Mayabazaar movie, Maya herself materialised in a few places, only to be brought down by Mulayam.
Even the Parli, which is supposed to enact statutes, if and when it functions, has a culture of erecting statues. While a certain quota for tall national leaders is understandable and also welcome for the sake of patriotic pride, some recent statues have been necessitated by coalition compulsions, a political ride really. I dread to think of some of the prospective statues now parading as political ‘stall’-’warts’ jostling for space in some cozy corner in that supreme corridor of power. Unlike now, they will neither walk out to the loo or for subsidised/free-snacks/tea nor be thrown out by the marshals. Time to put up the House Full board unless we want to risk an encroachment of stone in the well of the House. Plus side: A non-functioning Parli will at least be silent!
The judiciary should now get even-handed and seek to remove many stone hindrances in public places, particularly those of politicians, more particularly of recent vintage. At the national level too, there must be some kind of norms, and surely a land ceiling to the quantum of space to be ceded to the so-called popular among the dead. Apart from the lofty long term effect of preserving precious real estate for the living ones and unborns, the immediate take- aways of a court sponsored statue/samadhi eviction drive would be reduction in traffic jams, possible avoidance of caste and political clashes, less felicitation functions and a marked drop in demand for slipper-garlands. The crows of the country might cry a bit, but we can trust them to find other cosy perches to ease themselves.
But jokes apart, let’s stop this habit of casting revered personalities in stone in public spaces. Posthumous controversies are certainly no tribute that those who genuinely rever them would wish for! I, for one, certainly would not want actor non-pareil Sivaji Ganesan to be dragged into a petty dispute. A stone statue is but a very meagre measure of his towering stature.
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