The BJP is going all out to please the Maratha community with its grand inauguration plans for a Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial costing nearly Rs 3,600 crore.
For the bhoomipujan, descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji — Udayanraje Bhosale and Sambhaji Raje Chhatrapati — will be flown to the site with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
A Bollywood-set designer, Nitin Chandrakant Desai, has been brought on board to design the inauguration ceremony, which will be held on Saturday.
Mumbai will be decorated to reflect the culture of the Maratha period.
"Previous governments only made announcements, but we are fulfilling the dream of every person in the state. All the required permissions have been received, and the first phase of the project will be completed by 2019," said Vinod Tawde, minister for culture who is overseeing arrangements for Saturday's event.
"When it comes to the cost of the Shivaji memorial, we are not looking at the budget. Money will not fall short for this project. All we want is to give a befitting tribute to the great leader," he said.
A tent has been erected for seating dignitaries at Girgaum Chowpatty and volunteers will be dressed in traditional attire of foot soldiers to create the era of "Shivshahi," which is what Shivaji's rule is called. They will be positioned at various locations along Marine Drive. Cultural performances will be held at five locations between Marine Drive and Worli seaface. There will also be 15 boats carrying saffron flags and the presence of all royal families on the occasion. Prime Minister Modi will address a rally at the MMRDA grounds.
Meanwhile, an online petition has been signed by over 19,000 people to stop the construction of the memorial. "This is tax-payers' money and I am sure we would all like this money to be spent on something better - education, infrastructure, food...anything but a statue that is of no use to anyone. This is not what Shivaji would have wanted and I am sure we can find other ways to honour him," writes the petitioner Karishma Upadhyay.
The state has Rs 3.33 lakh crore debt and the cost of the memorial — Rs. 3,600 crore — is almost equal to the Mumbai Municipal Corporation's annual health budget.
The state has still not paid Rs 1,000 crore in compensation to cotton and soyabean farmers for crop loss. It has also not paid Rs 800 crore as crop insurance for crop loss during Rabi seasion.
