Building on Dalit Pride
KCR’s plan to erect the ‘biggest’ Ambedkar statue in Hyderabad is still stuck in the planning stages
When he performed the bhoomi puja for a 125 feet statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the tallest ever, on April 14 last year, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao set a tight deadline—April 14, 2017—to unveil it on the occasion of the Dalit icon’s 125th birth anniversary. There was another reason for his haste, he had to outdo his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu who had announced plans for an Ambedkar idol in Amaravati, the new state capital. Unfortunately, neither has made much headway. KCR is still struggling to complete the blueprints to get his grand plans even started before the quasquicentennial year runs out in 2018.
A cabinet sub-committee chaired by deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari, a Dalit, is on the job. But all that’s been ‘achieved’ are a couple of preliminary surveys of similar-in-scale
statues in Sikkim, China and South Asia. With no proper brief, the committee initially explored going to Gujarat where a mega, made-in-China Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue is being assembled. The members also went to south Hyderabad where a private trust is installing a 216-ft-tall statue of Sri Ramanujacharya, also made in China, ahead of the saint’s millennial birth anniversary celebrations.
Meanwhile, the members flew up to take a look at the 130 ft statue at Tathagata Tsal, a Buddha park at Ravangla (Rabong) in south Sikkim. And giving in to a greater wanderlust at state expense, they also travelled to view Buddhist statues near Shanghai and Lantau island in Hong Kong. Justifying the Chinese sojourn, a Srihari Committee member points out that even “engineering giant L&T (Larsen & Toubro, the original contractor for the Patel statue) sought the help of Chinese firms for the bronze plate cladding”. Curiously requesting anonymity, the member added that “China offers the best engineering options for an all-weather mega statue”.
Evidently impressed with what they saw, the committee expects to finalise its report by mid-March and, hopefully after a green signal from KCR, fast-forward plans to transform the site intended for the grand memorial—35 verdant acres next to Hyderabad’s NTR memorial facing the vast Hussain Sagar lake. The place will eventually be turned into a smriti vanam, a hallowed memorial complete with a well-stocked library, research and seminar facilities for Dalit studies, with the imposing Ambedkar statue towering over it all.
KCR is looking to create a landmark for Dalits—a mega monument that will dwarf the Indira Gandhi statue nearby and eclipse NTR’s memorial next door, let alone the relatively diminutive 58 ft Buddha monolith in Hussain Sagar—all ‘contributions’ of preceding chief ministers in old Andhra Pradesh.
Of course, it isn’t all altruism at work here, KCR is also eyeing the Dalit vote. Alongside his promise of 12 per cent reservation for Muslims, he’s hoping the statue will sweep him to a second innings as CM. Hyderabad’s power corridors are already abuzz with talk of early assembly polls in 2018, over a year ahead of the scheduled date.