Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi unveiled a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Kolhapur on Saturday (October 5, 2024).
Months after a controversy erupted after the collapse of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Maharashtra’s Malvan, Mr. Gandhi unveiled an equestrian bronze statue of the Maratha warrior king, which is 20 feet tall. The statue weighs around 2,000 kilograms.
“While we inaugurate the statue, we must not fight over it, and try to follow what they fought for,” said Mr. Gandhi.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi being received by Maharashtra Congress leaders on his arrival at the Kolhapur Airport, Maharashtra | Photo Credit: PTI
“The Constitution of India came into being from what Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj thought. If you are talking about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, then you must respect the Constitution,” the Congress leader said as he held up a copy of the red Constitution book.
He advised Congress workers to protect the thought of Shivaji Maharaj. “The Congress party is fighting with the same thought that Shivaji Maharaj fought for... Shivaji Maharaj derived his thoughts from the people of Maharashtra,” he said. “The Shivaji statue that collapsed is a message that you must protect his thinking”.
Mr. Gandhi is in Kolhapur ahead of the Assembly elections in the State, scheduled for later this year.
The visit to western Maharashtra, in the powerful sugar belt of the State, is crucial as Kolhapur is also the seat of the Chhatrapati, the birthplace of Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj, who had played a pivotal role in Maharashtra’s social reform movement. Rahul Gandhi is also slated to hold a Samvidhan Sammelan on Saturday.
Mr. Gandhi said that children are “made to dream about becoming a doctor, engineer or lawyer but are not given access”, hindering India’s potential as a superpower, adding that he believes that India’s education system needs improvement to ensure equal opportunities for all.
He also claimed that Ambani can “open any business he wants”, but small business people struggle to secure funding for expansion. Mr. Gandhi also questioned the inclusion of Dalits in the list of industrialists in India. “Successful public sectors that are competing with private sectors are being privatised. It’s not called privatisation. It’s called de-reservation,” he said.
He pointed out that not many Dalits, Adivasi, and backward caste people are included in senior management lists of top corporates, media, judiciary, and intelligence agencies in India.
Mr. Gandhi said that top priority is to protect the Constitution and break the 50% ceiling on reservation. “The First step is to break the artificial ceiling of 50% and second step is to take a caste census. Caste census is the X ray of the society. We know there is a pain. We want to know what the reason of the pain is,” he said.
“No power can stop us from passing the caste census in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. BJP is scared of the truth. They don’t want the people to know who has the power and finance of the country. BJP has closed all the roads, but We want to re-open the roads,” he added.
“Wherever my help is required to fight for the 90%, I will be there,” Mr. Gandhi noted.
(With inputs from ANI)
Published - October 05, 2024 12:18 pm IST
