Barely two days after PM Modi inaugurated the world’s tallest statue – the Statue of Unity, to commemorate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Yogi government in UP came out with a rather bizarre decision. The BJP led UP government is now determined to demolish all the statues and monuments which are lagging behind in their targeted revenue earnings.
The decision was taken after an activist-cum-Youtube expert offered a cost-benefit analysis of the Sardar Patel statue declaring that it would take about 120 years for the statue to solely break even. In a quick response, CM Yogi immediately chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the commercial feasibility of the memorials all across UP and a broad consensus was reached – either the historical structures have to ‘break-even’ or the government will be forced to ‘break’ them (no, literally).
Our sources revealed that Agra’s Taj Mahal was one of the central talking points of the meeting, mainly owing to its financial impracticability. The capital, labour and land that went into the making of Taj Mahal is way higher than the revenue that it has been able to generate till date. Considering the same, CM Yogi decided to demolish the mausoleum and replace it with a multiplex instead, since it is projected to generate higher revenues and would be cheaper to build.
This news has already invited a bunch of criticism and some people are pointing out that its nothing but an attempt to destroy the legacy of Mughals. Many activists remarked that the Taj Mahal should be viewed as a love-tribute by Shahjahan to his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal and Sardar Patel’s statue should be recognised only under the revenue and tourism model and not as a tribute to the man who made India into what it is now.
