Congress chooses to stay mum over Konddev statue

The Congress top brass has decided to stay clear of the controversy over the removal of Dadoji Konddev’s statue.

The politics over Shivaji’s mentor Konddev appears to have struck an emotive chord among the people and has pitched the NCP against the Shiv Sena, the BJP, and the MNS. And all this has made it difficult for the Congress to take a clear stand.

“The removal of Konddev’s statue at Lal Mahal in Pune is definitely going to give a huge mileage to the NCP at the cost of the Congress,” a senior MPCC functionary said. “While the Marathas will rally around the NCP, the none-Marathas will support the Sena, the BJP and the MNS.”

Congress leaders are worried that its votebank would suffer in the process. Another functionary said that the party has chosen to remain silent to minimise the damage.

Not surprisingly, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan too has tried not to make any direct comments. MPCC president Manikrao Thakre too hasn’t said anything.

The politics over Shivaji or his mentor Konddev is not new to state. Till recently, the Shiv Sena and the BJP had an upper hand in state politics. Ever since the James Laine book was published, the NCP has stolen the show by continuously seeking a ban on the book on the ground that Laine had distorted facts in the book.

Justifying the removal of the statue, NCP activist Jitendra Avhad said, “It has got nothing to do with caste politics. How can anybody tolerate derogatory remarks against Shivaji? I don’t see anything wrong in replacing the Konddev statue with Shahji Raje. After all, it has been historically proven that Shahji Raje was Shivaji’s father. But there is nothing to substantiate that Konddev was Shivaji’s mentor.”

BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said that nobody was justifying the derogatory writings against Shivaji.  “We are against
the politics being played by the NCP over the Konddev statue. Shivaji is our idol,”  he said.