Lord Ram statue taller than Statue of Unity cleared

Lucknow:  Uttar Pradesh government will install a 221-metre bronze statue of Lord Ram in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Information) Avanish Awasthi said on Sunday, 25^th November 2018, amid demand for  early construction of  Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.


While the height of the actual statue would be 151 metres, its overhead umbrella would be 20 metres while the pedestal would be 50 metres, he said.


A museum would be housed at the pedestal, Awasthi said.


Five firms shortlisted for construction of the statue gave presentations before Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Saturday evening, the officer said, adding soil testing is being done for installing the statue.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had on October 31, inaugurated an imposing 182-metrestatue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the country’s first home minister, in Gujarat.


Meanwhile at Ayodhya,  Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray  has once again reiterated his demand for a Ram Temple. Addressing a press conference in Ayodhya on Sunday, 25^th November 2018, Thackeray took a veiled dig at ally BJP saying that if the Ram Mandir is not built, this government (at the Centre) will not stay in power.

Uddhav also said that whether the party remained in power or not, the Ram Mandir will definitely be built. “If it doesn’t build it, then this govt may not stay, but the Mandir will still be built,” he said.


Thackeray who had gone to visit the Ram Lalla temple earlier in the morning, said that he had sought the blessings of the saints to get the work (construction of the Ram Mandir) done.


“I told the saints who blessed me yesterday that the work which we are about to begin can’t be done without their blessings. I have no hidden agenda in coming to Ayodhya. I’ve come here to express the sentiments of all Indians and Hindus across the world. They are all waiting for the Ram Mandir to be built,” he said.


Referring to a statement given by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, Thackeray said, “I heard that the chief minister had said, ‘mandir tha, hai aur rahega’. (’There was a mandir, there will be a mandir and there will remain a mandir.’) But that is our conviction, our belief, our emotion. What hurts is that we can’t see the mandir. When will we see the mandir? It should be built soon,” Thackeray said.


At a time when assembly elections are happening in five states, the Shiv Sena chief took a veiled dig at the BJP and warned that the party should not use the Ram Mandir issue as a poll plank. “If the matter has to go to court, then the party should not use this as a poll plank and should tell the people that this is just another jumla. They should not play with the emotions of Hindus,” he said.


On Saturday, 24^th November 2018,  Thackeray had, while addressing a gathering at Laxman Quila in Ayodhya, demanded that BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh must give a date by which the construction for the Ram Temple will begin in Ayodhya town.


“You have to tell us the date, the rest can follow. I want the date today,” Thackeray said.

“How many years will we have to wait? Generations have gone by ... During Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time, it might have been little difficult (to build the temple) but today’s government is powerful... If you want to bring in an ordinance bring it or if you want to make a law, do it,” he said in Hindi.

PM Narendra Modi strongly Disapproves Vandalism of Statues

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has strongly disapproved the incidents of vandalism reported from across the country and asked the Home Ministry on Wednesday 7^th March 2018 to take strong action.

PM Modi spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the issue following which the Home Ministry issued an advisory to the states asking them to prevent such incidents. The MHA has said that persons indulging in such acts must be sternly dealt with and booked under relevant provisions of law.

BJP chief Amit Shah terms as extremely unfortunate vandalisation of statues in some states. "The recent issue on destroying of statues is extremely unfortunate. We as a party do not support the bringing down of anybody’s statue," Shah tweeted.

In another incident of vandalisation, a statue of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was damaged at Jadavpur University in West Bengal on Wednesday, 7^th March 2018.

Police said a group of students blackened the face of the statue and tried to bring it down. Six students have been detained.

This incident comes after a statue of Dravidian movement leader Periyar  

Ramaswamy was razed in Vellore and two Lenin statues were damaged in Tripura.

The Lenin statues were razed in Tripura and the statue of Periyar was vandalised by two men in Tamil Nadu.

According to police, the glasses and the nose of the Periyar statue inside Tirupathur Corporation Office in Vellore were damaged by the vandals around 9 pm on Tuesday, 6^th March 2018. The men were caught by locals before they could inflict further damage and handed over to the police.

The vandalism attempt came hours after senior BJP leader H Raja said Periyar was "casteist" and called for the reformist's statue to be "destroyed" in a Facebook post. He deleted the post after facing a backlash.

“Who is Lenin? What is the relevance he holds in India? What is the link between communalism and India? Lenin’s statues were destroyed in Tripura, tomorrow, in Tamil Nadu, casteist Periyar’s statues will be destroyed,” wrote Raja.

The Facebook post was in reference to the incident in south Tripura, where alleged BJP supporters used a JCB to bring down a statue of communist revolutionary Lenin on Monday 5^th March 2018, two days after the party won the assembly elections in the state. On Tuesday 6^th March 2018, another Lenin statue was razed to the ground.

The Periyar reference in Raja’s post was heavily criticised online, following which, the leader took it down. He has reportedly said that someone else had inadvertently posted it on his page.

However BJP distanced itself from Raja’s statement

Another Lenin Statue Toppled in Tripura

New Delhi: Another statue of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, was razed to the ground by a mob in Tripura on Tuesday 6^th March 2018. This is the second such incident in two days after the BJP stormed to power in the state that was a Left bastion.

On Monday, 5^th March 2018, a group of alleged BJP supporters had brought down a sculpture of the Communist revolutionary leader in the heart of Belonia town in the southern part of the state while chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai.

Tuesday's incident took place in Sabroom town, also in south Tripura. Governor Tathagata Roy said it was a case of vandalism and not rioting. He said the district administration has been directed to take action.

The incidents have caused a war of words between the BJP and the opposition, with several BJP ministers defending the acts and saying that it was a mark of protest against communism.

A photo of Monday’s incident was shared by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav on Twitter, who wrote, "People taking down Lenin’s statue ... not in Russia; it is in Tripura. ‘Chalo Paltai' (sic)." The leader later deleted the tweet.

Tathagata Roy had also tweeted that a newly elected government was within its right to undo what the previous government had done. "What one democratically elected government can do another democratically elected government can undo. And vice versa," Roy wrote.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said the late Russian leader was "a terrorist" and questioned if the statue of such a person could be installed in India.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament, Swamy also suggested the Communist leaders should install Lenin's statue inside their party headquarters and "worship" him if they want.

‘Lenin was a foreigner. He was, in a way, a terrorist because the number of people he killed there (in Russia) after imposing dictatorship there. And (you) want statue of such a person erected in our country?" Swamy asked.

Union minister Giriraj Singh took the defense to another level and said people who were "oppressed" during the Left's 25-year rule in Tripura might have brought down a statue of communist icon Vladimir Lenin in the state.

On the other hand, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury criticised the BJP-RSS and urged the democratic and secular forces of the country to come together against the “fascist onslaught” of the saffron regime.

Condemning the incident, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, the kind of “divisive politics” that is vandalising Lenin’s statue today, will soon target those of Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose and Swami Vivekananda.