Let's play "Statue Statue!"

Ever played the "Statue" game when you were kids? It is a fairly simple game as we played it. All you have to do is call out "Statue" by pointing your index and middle finger with the thumb folded (similar to that of a gun), at your opponent any time of the day or night. The idea is to catch him or her unawares. The opponent has to remain static in the position for as long as you don't call out statue again.

Nowadays politicians in India have taken to the game very seriously. Their version of the game is "my statue is bigger than yours" (Seems like a guy thing?) In this game, you physically construct a statue of some historical icon from your state. The idea is to construct as big a statue as your imagination can hold. Some years ago Mayawati of Bahujan Samaj Party went on a statue spree in UP, when she was the Chief Minister of that state. Her goal was to create 1000 elephants which represents her party's symbol besides the statues of Dr. Ambedkar, her own and her mentor Kanshi Ram's. There was a hue and cry from all quarters about this project and especially the BJP. Nevertheless, she did construct her statues which are ensconced in a park in Lucknow today called the Ambedkar Memorial Park ('Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Prateek Sthal' for those who freak out on local lingo!) Of course the number of elephants was scaled down, probably when they realised that there is a cost to imagination running wild!

Today the same BJP people who screamed hoarse about Mayawati's statues are singing paeans to their own statues. While many are still cooking their "khayali Pulaos" (Pulao of imagination), the one that has been recently served up is the Sardar Vallabhai Patel statue in Gujarat. This one had been cooking since 2010, the master chef being Prime Minister Modi, who was the CM of Gujarat then. This one has been named "The Statue of Unity". Of course it is a little funny that just before the launch of the statue by Modi, some people of the state decided on demonstrating their sense of the word unity by unleashing violence on the people of UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh living in Gujarat, driving them out by the hordes. And all these states ironically are ruled by the BJP so the "unity" was even more poignant!

The other part of the story is that many have jumped on the statue game band wagon. Soon after Patel, came the announcement by UP CM Adityanath Yogi that they will be constructing an equally big if not a bigger statue of Ram on the Ganges! Of course chelas are expected to take a leaf out of the book of their gurus. So "tu Patel tho mai Ram!" On the Western front, Phadnavis' Maharashtra govt. has almost finalized the design of a "world's tallest" Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea! This one's also been cooking for a while and the chef minister Phadnavis may actually make some headway.

A politicians' job is to also keep a tab on the pulse of the people besides his own pocket, and so surely enough, Karnataka which is ruled by the "Opposition" announced they would like to construct a "statue of mother Cauvery". Now that may be a good idea because at least the younger generation in future will know there was something like the Cauvery which they are killing little by little every day!

And there is more to the statue saga. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu announced today that they will be constructing the "tallest tallest" tower as part of their new Assembly complex in Amravati, the new capital of the "left-over" state. This he assures us would be the taller than Patel by a good margin. I hope Chandrababu can put his mentor NTR on top of the tower so there is like more punch to the story!