The 62-feet tall Hanuman arrived with great pomp and show but the revelers left destruction in their wake.
Bangalore, April 9, 2018: If you visited Hennur this morning, you probably must have seen these: orange flags with “Om” printed on them, scores of bikers wearing orange scarves and the dub step version of Modi’s surgical strike speech.
Hanuman was coming. A 300-wheel vehicle was transporting the mammoth 62-feet tall statue from Kolar to Kacharakanahalli in Hennur. A grand procession of saffron clad multitude left a trail of ruins as the main road now barely has any of its original surface left.
With traffic being diverted from the main road, tempers were running high and the cacophony of blaring horns filled the air.
A van with the picture of Hanuman blockaded one end of the road. It read: 62-feet tall, 750-ton Hanuman statue.
The State Government has asked for a stay on the installation of the Hanuman statue as the area the Rama Chaithanya Vardhini Trust wants to install the statue is a lakebed.
H.S. Ramesh, the HBR Ward President of Bharatiya Janata Party said that they are happy that his locality will have such a larger than life installation. He added that since everyone wanted the statue, the destruction left behind is a part of it.
He tried to assure that the dividers which were uprooted and the road which was dug up will be restored soon.
Farookh, a shop owner said that he is unsure why the statue is being installed in that way in the first place. He added that the Rama Chaithanya Vardhini Trust could have done the project in situ which would have not caused this amount of damage to public property.
Another elderly couple who were reluctant to talk about the whole situation said that they do not know whether this kind of destruction of public property is right or wrong. They pointed out that the stone blocks from the pavements were taken out and the electric poles were pulled down..
A resident named Santhosh said that he is happy that the locality is getting the statue. He went on to praise the local authorities for making it possible. He added that the destruction is minor and the property will be restored soon.
Just as the crowd was chanting “Jai Sri Ram”, one of the bull dozers rammed into an electric pole, which fell snapping a few overhead wires resulting in a power cut.
An RSS activist said the statue will remain near its designated spot for one more year where work on it will continue.. He added that the statue has already gone through three years of work. The transporter had been hired for Rs 4 crore and will be paid another Rs. 1 crore to be stationed there for one more year.
Farookh who was observing the advancement of the procession said that the money could have been better used for other purposes such as developing public utilities.
A police constable said that the statue is expected to reach its designated spot near the ISKCON by six in the evening. However, he said it wasn’t clear when the traffic along the stretch will be normalized.
