For a moment, Jaydeep Apte’s black mask falls. Seated on a wooden bench on the veranda of the Malvan courthouse on September 10, he catches a glimpse of his nine-year-old daughter. His face breaks out in a smile, and he holds her eye briefly, until he is led into the courtroom. Apte, 39, is the primary accused in the case of the recent collapse of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in southern Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district.
Commissioned by the Indian Navy, with a deadline of six months, the 28-foot-high statue, from sandal to sword, designed by Apte has caused great political turmoil, both in Maharashtra and at the Centre. The 17th-century Maratha king is seen as a challenger of British and Mughal (Muslim) authority, and a preserver of the (Hindu) faith. A number of political parties in the State derive their muscular imagery from Shivaji’s Maratha might. Inaugurated at Rajkot Fort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year on Navy Day, December 4, the statue collapsed on August 26.
The court overlooks the Arabian Sea — turbulent during the monsoon, the lifeline of fisherfolk the rest of the year, and water sports enthusiasts’ summer sojourn. Now, winds blow, and swimming has been banned. It was the strong winds, at 45 km per hour, and lashing rain that brought the statue down, cracking at the ankles. That, and poor construction, say prosecution lawyers.
With Apte is structural engineer Chetan Patil. They have been charged under Sections 109 (attempt to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 125 (act endangering life and personal safety of others), 318 (cheating), and 3(5) (criminal act with common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. However, when the statue collapsed, nobody was present at the site, so there was no loss of life.
Within the courtroom, with its weather-friendly sloping tiled roof, legal arguments begin on whether Apte’s police custody should be extended to five more days, or whether he should be remanded in judicial custody in Sawantwadi Jail, about 50 km away.
The police press for an extension, saying their interrogation has not yet been completed. They are also awaiting the report of a Kolhapur-based forensic team that had collected metal samples from the statue and its supporting structure to check for wear and tear. The judge obliges; police custody is extended till September 13.
Apte’s daughter; wife Nishigandha, 33; and mother, 65, sit stoically through the court proceedings. “After the statue collapsed, my husband received a call from the Navy asking him to visit Rajkot Fort,” she says. “He was scared for his life, and went into hiding.”
A band of five or six men, affiliated to the extremist youth organisation, Sambhaji Brigade, named after Shivaji’s son and successor, had shown up at their apartment block in Thane district’s Kalyan and flung eggs on the door, she says. “They pasted blown up pictures of him on the corridor walls and painted them black.” His lawyer, Ganesh Sovani, says they also labelled Apte ‘Shivdrohi (someone against Shivaji)’
Sculptor Jaydeep Apte (in orange T-shirt) at the Malvan court in Sindhudurg district. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
When the statue collapsed, ahead of the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, Apte was in his workshop in Kalyan, roughly 20 km from India’s financial capital Mumbai, and about to begin painting at least 60 Ganesh idols. “He had to abandon his work, and spent the week in acute anxiety, before surrendering,” says Nishigandha.
Apte was arrested on September 4 in Kalyan.
Political pedalling
Within an hour of the collapse, Vaibhav Naik, a local MLA belonging to the Shiv Sena (UBT), visited the site. From here, armed with a long stick, he headed to the adjoining Public Works Department office. Later, videos of him entering the building aggressively and brandishing the weapon, and breaking wooden tables and glass windows were circulated on social media.
Over the next three days, at least 11 politicians across political parties visited the fort. On August 28, about 150 supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Narayan Rane and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray clashed at the site when they arrived around the same time. They flung bricks, injuring at least two police personnel on duty.
On August 30, Modi was addressing a gathering in Palghar to lay the foundation stone of the Vadhavan Port, a project fisherfolk have been objecting to for the past three decades. There, he deified Shivaji, apologising to the warrior king, saying he bowed down at his feet. Shivaji was not just a king but also his ‘aaradhya dev (god)’, he claimed. He also asked for the forgiveness of Shivaji’s followers. In the same speech, he also spoke about Hindutva proponent V.D. Savarkar.
On May 13, a hoarding had collapsed at Ghatkopar in Mumbai following heavy rainfall, killing 17 people and injuring 74. Modi had held an election roadshow in the area two days later, with Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut saying it was “inhuman” to do so. The collapse, however, did not elicit any reaction from the PM at the rally.
Playing statue
Navy Day commemorates Operation Trident, when the force had sunk three Pakistani naval ships during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Usually, the day is celebrated with a display of naval might in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam. Last year’s theme was ‘Operational Efficiency, Readiness, and Mission Accomplishment in the Maritime Domain’.
Sources say the Defence Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi had asked the Navy to build the statue and officials were keen on it being installed at Sindhudurg Fort, built on an islet in the Arabian Sea. The event was just four months away from the Lok Sabha election, beginning in April, and political leaders were on a ribbon-cutting, might-displaying spree.
Since people living inside the fort were opposed to the plan, a green patch of land on the coast adjacent to a buruz (watch tower), historically known as Rajkot Fort, was cleared to build the statue. It lay north-west of Sindhudurg Fort and belonged to the Maharashtra government. A fort-like structure mimicking erstwhile Maratha architecture was developed to house the statue.
Sources in the Defence Ministry say nearly ₹2.45 crore was transferred to the Navy by the State government, which is headed by the Mahayuti alliance, comprising the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the BJP, and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. Even though the Navy has claimed that an official tender was put out, with five bidders, investigating police officers have said its copy has yet not been made available to them.
On September 2, 2022, Modi had unveiled the Indian Navy’s new ensign, which did away with St. George’s Cross, used in Britain from the Middle Ages, symbolic of the Christian military saint, and considered a colonial vestige. It was replaced with a design inspired by Rajmudra, Shivaji’s royal seal. “There is a stark difference of opinion in the Navy on the new ensign,” according to a source from the Defence Ministry. The Prime Minister has earlier referred to Shivaji as the ‘Father of the Indian Navy’, which sources say isn’t a description that the Navy officially subscribes to.
The devil in the details
Between July and August last year, after Apte’s firm M/S Artistry had been finalised for the project, he and several Navy officials paid three visits to the site. A five-foot-high clay model of the statue was approved by the Maharashtra government, and by August 14, the eve of Independence Day, it was subjected to 3D scanning and digital editing, enlarging the design to 28 feet. This was printed in plastic and divided into nine major parts and 637 sub-parts for pattern-making and moulding; each weighing 500-700 kg. They were cast in silicon bronze, a copper alloy, at three different foundries and welded together prior to transportation to Sindhudurg. The six-tonne statue would stand on a 10-foot pedestal resting on a five-foot underground plinth.
The heavy parts reached the assembly site at Rajkot Fort on October 25 last year. Apte had not received any advance from the government and mortgaged his home for a loan of ₹65 lakh to put in the initial money. He was paid in April 2024.
“My husband told me that there was immense pressure to finish the statue amid tight deadlines. After the parts arrived, the next 10 days were spent in securing electrical connection permissions [from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board]. My husband and his team were expected to erect a statue under 20 days by the end of November last year,” says Nishigandha.
Apte had made sure to incorporate a scar on Shivaji’s face, which legend suggests was inflicted on him during a skirmish with Afzal Khan, a general of the Bijapur Sultanate, and his men. Earlier statues of Shivaji and miniature paintings housed in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, did not feature the scar.
Experts speak about how Shivaji’s first sculpture in Pune was made in a single cast, as opposed to an assembly of parts by sculptor Vinayak Karmarkar. “In 1934, a second statue of Shivaji, housed in Sayaji Baug, Vadodara, was sculpted by G.K. Mhatre, and it still stands 90 years later,” says Sandeep Dahisarkar, a Mumbai-based archaeologist and art historian. He says this shows Shivaji mounted on a horse, which gives it more stability.
Chetan Patil, the structural consultant, of the Shivaji Maharaj statue, outside Malvan court, Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
Anil Sutar, who along with his father Ram Sutar, 99, is one of the last living legendary sculptors belonging to the Bombay School of Art, took five years to complete the about 600-foot-tall Statue of Unity of a standing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat. “The structural engineering and construction work was done by Larsen & Toubro. The statue was subjected to extensive wind velocity checks and tested to withstand earthquakes among other safety analyses,” Anil says.
A government official on the condition of anonymity says, “We are not sure if all the safety tests were conducted on the Shivaji statue. Structural engineer Chetan Patil was only responsible for the certification of the pedestal and the plinth.”
However, Apte’s lawyer says “withstandability tests” were carried out. According to experts, statues are usually bulit and and tested to withstand cyclonic winds of up to 150 km per hour. A joint technical expert committee has been constituted by the Navy and the State government to ascertain the exact reason for the statue’s collapse.
Tourists and residents
Once the statue was inaugurated, Police Inspector Pravin Kolhe, in-charge of the Malvan police station, says about five lakh tourists visited the fort. Local beach resorts proudly added it to the list of sightseeing attractions in the town.
Sitting in her double-storeyed home overlooking the now-barricaded area with an empty pedestal wrapped in white tarpaulin sheets, Anita Redkar, 53, recalls hearing a loud thud amid stormy winds the day the statue collapsed. “I initially thought a part of our roof or house had collapsed,” she says. Anita and her husband Babban, 62, a former fisherman, had started a snack stall when the statue came up to cater to tourists.
A staunch loyalist of Rane, who is affiliated with the BJP but was earlier with the undivided Shiv Sena and then the Congress, Babban says, “When I heard that a statue is being built here and Rane as well as his party is patronising it, I helped with arranging electric supply, water, and so on.” He says he felt it would be seva (service) and fetch his family some business from tourists.
“During the peak season [in winter], 5,000 tourists would arrive in a week to see the statue. Our daily income from providing tea and snacks ranged between ₹500 and ₹2,000. Now, who will come?” he says, desolately.
At least 30 police personnel guard the site 24x7, camping on the upper floor of the Redkar residence. Up to 40 others patrol various parts of the town to prevent any more political scuffles.
Around Malvan, shops have a small statue or a poster venerating Shivaji as a warrior hero. The police station too has one. “There are two factions in Maharashtra: one that considers him a great war hero, and another that reveres him as a Hindu God,” says a local, asking not be named.
A portrait of Shivaji’s coronation hanging at a local eatery says: “Kashi ki kala jaati, Mathura main Masjid vasti, agar Shivaji na hote to sunnat sabki hoti (The art of Kashi would be lost, Mathura would house mosques; but for Shivaji, everyone would have been converted to Islam).”
Plans are afoot to install more Shivaji statues in the State for a political push ahead of the Assembly election, which is due later this year. These include the world’s tallest equestrian sculpture at 696 feet in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai and a 100-foot standing statue at Pune.
Published - September 13, 2024 12:27 am IST
