E-Paper
Statues or bust
Statues depicting BR Ambedkar dot the villages of India and may have done a lot to restore Dalit pride.
Given the masterly inactivity that many of our netas specialise in, it might soon be difficult to tell them apart from the proliferating number of statues of departed leaders that adorn Parliament. Statue installation is serious business.
It is decided upon by a statue committee chaired by the Speaker himself. The term ‘graven image’ could well be remoulded to ‘craven image’ going by the manner in which political parties have been slugging it out to ensure that their late leaders get top billing. And so we had the slugfest between the AIADMK and the DMK on whether MGR or Murasoli Maran should get pride of place. As it turns out, both did within a day of each other.
Mass base is supposedly the prime criterion for being cast in stone — or bronze. And just in case the beloved leader looks a little different in his or her after-life avatar, the statue committee also keeps a sharp eye on matters aesthetic. It is a different matter that beauty lies in the eye of the follower and many statues sport attributes highly complimentary to the venerated one. Poor BR Ambedkar, however, has not been a beneficiary of such artistic creativity. Thousands of statues depicting him dot the villages of India and may have done a lot to restore Dalit pride. But it is hard to tell him apart from Netaji Subhas Bose in these creations. It is even more difficult to discern Babasaheb’s outlines post-monsoon as most of his images are in clay.
Post-1993 there has been a spurt in the demand for statues in Parliament thanks to the growth of coalition politics. Then there is the issue of size. Which self-respecting party will settle for a bust if a full-length statue can be installed? There is also the matter of placement. Who would not want their neta to occupy a vantage position where he could gaze forever at the decorous manner in which his political heirs conduct themselves in the Houses? With coalition politics here to stay, the spillover could be accommodated through portraiture, which at present tends towards rather Dali-esque interpretations. But the message is clear for our democracy; you may be unheralded during your political career, but you could well be put on a pedestal when you move on to the Great Parliament House in the Sky.
