Both Shinde and Thackeray gave statements on the memorial that is to be built in the Arabian Sea.
While Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said on Sunday that it is more important to maintain and conserve the historic forts that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj built instead of building a memorial for the Maratha warrior in the Arabian Sea, former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that it would not be proper to do away with the memorial just because Thackeray had said so.
Thackeray and Shinde were both in Pune to attend two different functions and made statements on the memorial to be built in the Arabian Sea for Shivaji Maharaj. Thackeray said that the people who want to build the memorial in the sea want it to be taller than the Statue of Liberty in the US, but had not yet reached any decision on how tall the horse would be on which Shivaji's statue would be mounted. He added that, on one hand, these people were talking of spending crores of rupees on the Arabian Sea memorial but, on the other hand, they were neglecting the heritage of Maharashtra that lies in the forts built by the great Maratha warrior.
Thackeray said that these forts are in a dilapidated condition and the cost of the memorial is increasing at every step. He also said that people who had never gone to any of these forts were now criticising the decision of the state government to confer the Masharashtra Bhushan award on Babasaheb Purandare, who has devoted eight decades to research on Shivaji Maharaj. He added that it is more important to restore, maintain and conserve historic forts, which constitute the heritage of Maharashtra, than build the memorial at sea.
Shinde, while speaking to media persons on the same day as Thackeray, said that the in-sea memorial was conceived of when the Congress was in power in the state. Shinde said that Shivaji Maharaj is a subject of pride for Maharashtra and the country at large, which is why the proposed memorial would be comparable to the Statue of Liberty in the US. He added that there is nothing wrong in the memorial being built. He also said that it is not proper to say that the memorial should be done away with only because Thackeray says so.
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 "Raj Thackeray and Shishkumar Shinde")
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