Million March organizers should reinstall statues: LSP

Severely condemning the demolition of statues, and attacks on media and Members of Parliament on the occasion of ‘Million March’ on Tank Bund in Hyderabad on March 10, the Lok Satta Party said on Friday there is no place for anarchy, destruction and violence in democracy and that people should pursue their legitimate causes peacefully and constitutionally. Those leading agitations should realize that violence and destruction would ultimately be counterproductive.

In a media statement, Lok Satta Party working president DVVS Varma said that destruction of 17 of the 33 statues of Telugu legendary figures on Tank Bund could not be wished away as coincidental or collateral since the demolishers had come prepared with the requisite tools to carry out their diabolical mission. Some people had earlier kicked up a row over the statues describing them as symbols of cultural imperialism. Taking pledges at the statue of Pothana, author of the Bhagavatam in Telugu, and demolishing the statue of Yerrapragada, the author of the Mahabharatam in Telugu, merely exposed the cultural bankruptcy of the participants. Telugu culture, after all, Neither Mahabharatam nor Bhagavatam can be de-linked from Telugu culture.

Mr Varma said that it was not proper for a Government, which could not protect the statues to assert it would re-install them. “We will be doing great disservice to the Telugu legendary figures as long as there are iconoclasts on the one side and installers on the other and as long police have to be deployed to safeguard their statues. Only when the demolishers deemed the statutes as forming part of our cultural legacy, their reinstallation will be appropriate.”

Whoever might have physically demolished the statues, the organizers of Million March would have to take responsibility for the March 10 incidents. It would be in the fitness of things if they take the initiative for re-installation of the demolished statues, Mr Varma added.

Mr Varma asked people to maintain restraint and not display passion in the wake of such unfortunate incidents.