Sambhaji Brigade warns against reinstalling bust of Marathi litterateur

The Pune Municipal Corporation’s attempts to re-install the bust of legendary Marathi litterateur Ram Ganesh Gadkari would be a deliberate provocation and one that could lead to a law and order situation unless the State and civic administrations paid heed to the demands of the Sambhaji Brigade, said the outfit’s members here on Monday.

“The gesture [to reinstall Gadkari’s bust] would be an insult to the reputation of King Sambhaji. We cannot say what would be the consequences if the collective anger of the Maratha youth spills over. The PMC’s move might lead to a law and order problem for which we will not take responsibility,” said Amol Mitkari, spokesperson, Sambhaji Brigade.

He said that the Maratha Seva Sangh and the Sambhaji Brigade had been crusading against the removal of Gadkari’s bust for the past 12 years, but the civic administration had not paid any heed to the outfit’s sentiments.

The famous bust, installed ironically in the city’s sprawling Sambhaji Park in 1962, had been uprooted and flung into the river by four activists of the pro-Maratha outfit in the early hours of Tuesday last week.

The brigade defended its actions by saying Gadkari had ‘negatively’ portrayed King Sambhaji, the eldest son of the Maratha warrior Shivaji Maharaj, in his early 20th century play Raj-Sanyas as an alcoholic and womaniser.

The outfit, which infamously vandalised the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in protest against American scholar James Laine’s book on Shivaji, has demanded that the Fadnavis government set up a historical committee to launch an inquiry into the alleged ‘negative references’ in Gadkari’s play and install a statue of King Sambhaji in place of Gadkari’s at Sambhaji Park.

Mr. Mitkari further rebuffed accusations by political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party that the vandalism was linked to the approaching municipal elections and that it was an attempt to create schisms within social classes.

“The rumour is being spread that our action was deliberately timed on the eve of the civic polls. We have never believed in achieving power by playing ‘statue politics’,” he said.

Observers say that the act is a deliberate effort on the part of the brigade to rally together the Maratha community.