Govt sparks row by installing RSS ideologue’s statue in Raj Bhawan
CONTROVERSY Chandigarh building bylaws do not allow putting up any statue in official premises; govt now claims Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay’s bust was brought to Raj Bhawan to pay him tributes, but has not been installed
The BJP government in Haryana seems to have courted controversy after it “installed” a statue of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay inside the Raj Bhawan, despite the fact that Chandigarh building bylaws do not allow any such installation in official premises.
The installation of Upadhayay’s statue on June 8 was said to be part of the commemoration of the birth centenary year of the RSS ideologue by the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in the state. Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and chief minister Khattar unveiled the statue at the Raj Bhawan.
The move has given ample ammunition and opportunity to principal opposition party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) with its leader Abhay Chautala shooting off a stinker to Khattar on Thursday, taking exception to installation of the statue inside the Raj Bhawan.
Senior officials of the Chandigarh administration, on condition of anonymity, said that UT building bylaws did not allow installation of any statue at any official premises.
The union territory does not have the statue of even its founder architect Le Corbusier and former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who initiated the plan to set up the city.
However, the state government, which had gone gaga over the June 8 function and released handouts stating that Solanki and Khattar unveiled Upadhayay’s statue, on Friday told HT that it had not been installed, but was brought for a function only to pay floral tributes to the late leader.
Amit Aggrawal, secretary, Raj Bhawan, said the bust was brought only for a function and that it had not been installed at the Raj Bhawan. “It belongs to the Haryana government and could be taken by it anytime,” he said.
Additional chief secretary KK Khandelwal, who is member secretary of the committee for the centenary function, also maintained that the bust of Pt Upadhyay belonged to the Haryana government, which would soon decide where to place or install it.
ABHAY CHAUTALA’S LETTER TO CM
Abhay Chautala, however, rubbished the government claim and asserted that he knew it with certainty that the statue had been installed there. “That’s why I have also written to Khattar on the matter, decrying the wasteful expenditure on the celebration of birth centenary of the RSS ideologue as well as the installation of his statue within the Raj Bhawan,” he said.
“I am surprised that no one outside those connected to your party were invited for the unveiling… Therefore, I like to believe that since you must have had doubts about its propriety, that is why the hush-hush affair,” he had written in the letter.
The Raj Bhawan is above party politics and hence any attempt to politicise it was reprehensible, Abhay wrote and held that no previous government had ever attempted to inject politics in the Raj Bhawan complex.
“Raj Bhawan is the residence of the governor but it is not a private property which is subject to the whims and fancies of the occupant and the government in power. Therefore, I would like to believe that the installation and unveiling of the statue was a private affair of the governor, and that it was not commissioned out of the state funds,” he said while seeking clarification on it.