Harambe's death might have turned social media into a very odd place, what with internet memes about a dead gorilla – but India sets the bar when it comes to absurd shenanigans. If America's dead-animal oddness is flourishing digitally, India turns it into real-life drama. This is the story of Shaktiman, a chief minister and a disappearing horse statue.
Shaktiman was a police horse in Dehradun who had spent a decade in the force before coming face to face with Ganesh Joshi, Bharatiya Janata Party legislator, and a raised lathi. That incident, in March, did not end well for the animal. Shaktiman emerged without one hind leg.
As the country got to know of the animal's plight (and saw Joshi being arrested), hope appeared in the form of a donated prosthetic leg. Shaktiman even managed to walk after surgery. But the injuries were too much for the old mare: she died on April 20, aged 14.
The Uttarakhand government aware of all the support Shaktiman had received from around the country, felt that her death had to be marked. Shaktiman couldn't be forgotten. The government renamed a park and stables after the horse. And it even scrounged around and put together Rs 5 lakh to make a fibreglass statue, which was to be placed at Rispana Chowk in Dehradun. Another statue was installed at Police Lines.
On Monday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat was supposed to inaugurate the statue of the horse at Rispana. He turned up to the launch, with the statue decorated, pandits ready to do pooja and a police band playing music in honour of the horse. A plaque with Rawat's name on it dedicated the statue to Shaktiman's memory.
Then something odd happened.
The Uttarakhand chief minister left the venue, without explanation. His only words, according to the Hindustan Times, were, “let the next government inaugurate the statue of Shaktiman". And then things got even odder: A day later, both the Shaktiman statues disappeared.
Why?
The simple answer might offer a direct connection to what Rawat said as he left the inauguration. He wanted the "next government" to inaugurate the statue possibly because, in the days leading up to its installation, Rawat came under a torrent of criticism on social media and from the Bharatiya Janata Party for memorialising a horse – and not the people who had died to see Uttarakhand become a state, or any number of other potentially tragic figures.
Ostensibly Rawat didn't want to politicise the issue any further, as he himself said. Shaktiman is remembered not only because of how much support the horse got after it was injured but also because it was a BJP MLA who allegedly attacked it in the first place.
But then why ask for a statue to be built in the first place? And why turn up for its inauguration?
Murmurs from Dehradun suggested something else might be at play too. The day the horse statue was supposed to be inaugurated, famous astrologer Bejan Daruwalla was also in the city. Daruwalla has in the past been a happy element for Rawat, having predicted that he would win the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly and also win the state elections next year.
That day being the astrologer's birthday, Rawat happened to meet and talk to him, and people couldn't avoid connecting the subsequent disappearance of the horse statues to this meeting.
What's more Rawat's penchant for astrology is not new. According to the Times of India, he is a staunch bhakt of Golu Devta, a Kumaoni avatar of Shiva, who rides a white horse – just like Shaktiman. The murmurs suggest Rawat was advised to avoid a memorial to a dead white horse, and his comments to ToI in the aftermath don't exactly dismiss this.
"The next government, after the 2017 elections, in Uttarakhand will take a decision on the Shaktiman statue and the day for dedicating it to the people. I agree that I am a religious man, but superstition has nothing to do with the issue. Famous astrologer Bejan Daruwalla was in Dehradun for his birthday on Monday but it has no connection with the matter. I had decided well before meeting him that I will not inaugurate the statue."
The BJP has naturally jumped at the chance to attack Rawat over this, pointing out his superstition and alleging that he is "scared" to inaugurate the statue, just weeks after putting hoardings around town venerating the dead horse for being a hero. “A superstitious CM cannot do anything for the development of his state,” Pradesh BJP president Ajay Bhatt said.
But, as the Huffington Post points out, it's not just about Rawat's personal beliefs. Five lakhs of taxpayer money went into building that statue, not to mention the other ones, and presumably the government will spend more money if and when it reinstalls the statue.
Rawat on Wednesday told reporters that the decision to install the statue at Rispana Chowk was "final". Except he wasn't happy with that statue, due to "personal reasons" and he claimed that a statue designed in a better way will be installed at the appropriate time.
She may have died with the support of people from around the country, but even in death, then, Shaktiman has not yet been put to rest.
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