01 September,2009 07:00 AM IST | | Tushar Joshi
Vishal Dadlani is up in arms against the state government's plan to erect a Shivaji statue in the middle of the Arabian sea. The music director who voices his thoughts and opinion on a social networking site recently spoke about his angst about money being wasted on making a statue.
The composer wrote, "Is no one furious that they're building a giant statue in the sea, with our money, without asking us? Are we gonna allow this too, Bombay? Would Shivaji approve wasting public money on a showpiece when farmers are dying, when the Police and Coast Guard are weak? No."
Is no one furious?
Dadlani has also started an online petition to stop the building of the statue (https://smallchange.in/). In his petition he writes, "Today, the famous theatre director and playwright, Rahul DaCunha, brought up an interesting issue on Facebook.
He asks, "Is NO ONE furious that they are building a statue in the middle of the ocean, without asking us and with our money?" I'm furious about this and I'm hoping our collective blood has not yet stopped simmering. I'm hoping to raise the collective voice of all at SmallChange.in against this! I've been told that the statue will cost hundreds of crores. We could better use the funds to upgrade the Police Force or the Coast Guard. We could, I'm sure, suggest a thousand alternatives! If we start a petition about this, for a PIL against this, will you join me?"
This isn't the first time Vishal has taken his views online and started a petition. In the past, he urged people to sign his petition against TV channels and media for leaking out information on the 26/11 attacks. In fact, he had even filed a PIL in Bombay High Court on the same. His drive to curb the media on coverage of terror attacks received over 2 lakh signatures.
Response to petition
After putting his petition online on August 27, Vishal has got over 38 comments from people who have read about his initiative. Here are some of the comments.
The hundreds of crores (Rs 350 Crore, to be precise) that will be spent on the statue could be instead spent on upgrading of police forces and coast guards, or in construction of hospitals, schools, community centers or even parks which would provide a much needed relief to the over crowded city. Or it could be spent on making the infra structure better. There are yet hundreds of BETTER uses than putting up a statue. Please let's do something to stop the politicians from misusing our hard earned moneyu00a0
- Hitesh Sachdev
We will join you in this petition. There is a drought-like situation in the 27 districts of Maharashtra, but the govt. is busy thinking about a monument... shows the vote-bank politics of our leaders
- Abhiram
I'm in!! Who needs more statues!! We have a failed monsoon, depleting forests! Farmers committing suicide. We don't need monuments... we need change. We must become the change. Lets join forces and do something together!
-u00a0Loretta
Totally not required, especially when two-thirds of Maharashtra is facing a terrible drought and farmers are committing suicide.The cost of the statue is enough to save lakhs of farmers in this drought year!u00a0
- Devang Bhatt
