Dhruv Rathee wrongly mixes various aspects while arguing against Statue of Unity – Rebuttal by Aabhas Maldahiyar

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Rebuttal by Aabhas K Maldahiyar 

After reading the article by Dhruv Rathee promoted by Shekhar Gupta, I must say while he has wrongly mixed various aspects while arguing against Statue of Unity, below is the my rebuttal.

Dhruv Rathee you said that it will add to the symbolical & rhetoric pride that Indians like to reveal in these days. I would like to ask simple questions, what is your nationality? Aren’t you Indian, since you don’t see pride in it? (Your Rhetoric 1). Let’s move on though. Since you call it a rhetorical Indian pride then what is the Statue of Spring, Statue of Liberty, Statue of Motherland Calls, Christ the Redeemer doing considering to are direct religious expression? You must clear your stand on this because this shall only place your argument

 

Aren’t you thankful that not Bharat Mata like ‘Motherland Calls’ but ‘Statue of Unity’ is being built? You ask people-which is second largest Statue, like a school kid (your rhetoric 2) I ask you better question, are you aware what % of GDP (PP) was used while Statue of Liberty was made?

Let me make you aware Mr Rathee, France used 0.73% of GDP (PP) while India is using 0.017% GDP (PP). To understand more of economic comparative read this thread

1/ In a state where 25.69% of population lives Below Poverty Line, 38% children are stunted, 26% are wasted, 39% are underweight and 9.5% are severely wasted, Government’s priority is a statue and spent a whopping ₹2989 crore on that.

This is called Development! https://t.co/pTlHma3uuO

— Ravi Nair (@t_d_h_nair) October 15, 2018

Are you aware Mr Rathee that the idea you practice is called ‘Postmodernism’ & the post modernists have actually built maximum symbolic structure including amazing ‘Jews Museum’ Berlin. I really admire this work & love the architecture. Few images:

Fair enough that you question people if they don’t know where the second largest Statue of world is. I asked you about economic conditions pertaining Statue of Liberty & I too will ask you not to be embarrassed because no YouTube video is available for that analysis, Mr YouTuber.

You very rightly said that Historical structure attracts more than modern construction still I’m sure your understanding of Urban Design/ Planning & related economics is flawed as you go on to compare Burj Khalifa with Eiffel to argue against Statue Of Unity. Let me explain

The Statue of Unity Complex (not Statue) alone is completely different design brief than Burj Khalifa. While the former itself is designed to get in tourists, later is a mixed use complex with tourism just an ancillary activity like a bonus. The commerce of Burj Khalifa depends on its hotels, office suites, residences, restaurants, retails & commercial spaces. Ideal way to compare Eiffel with Burj will be in terms of revenue each draw. It’s like asking FaceTime from a Pixel phone

You took a jibe saying that Statue of Unity complex will attract more tourists than Taj Mahal. So now let me ask you are you aware of the whole project design? What the proposals are? What are occupancy considerations? Are you aware of even 1/4th of project brief? Let me take you through it

In the first phase, a bridge connecting the memorial to the mainland, a memorial, visitor centre buildings, a memorial garden, a hotel, a convention centre, an amusement park, research centres and institutes is being constructed. Dhruv do you have any idea about commercials?

One might not visit Taj if he visits Agra but will for sure get a hotel right? If you want to compare commerce amid Taj & Statue of Unity you will need to sum the commerce from all nearby hotels, convention centres, research centre etc with same built up area as proposed in Statue of Unity

Let’s move to other part of your article. You went on to say that Sardar Patel Statue is about Political Symbolism & not rich Indian culture. You are absolutely incorrect.

Sardar Patel weaved the country together which was to be fragmented into 562 parts. You might have been making ISD call to reach out many you know. Then you might have been talking about small limited culture of a particular state as your national culture. Had Sardar not been there you might have not been able to brag about diverse pluralistic nature that we celebrate. Few reasons in life are more important than consequence. I hope you know well though Indus Valley Civilisation is our origin we can’t even visit it easily for its proximity.

You talk of heritage sites. Let me correct you here, we have 37 not 36 world heritage sites. I agree that ASI lacks in fund but I must say the thing has been political for long years. Weren’t ASI people shunned down for work in Dwarka, Hastinapur & Ayodhya.

Why don’t you acknowledge that Ram Temple shud come up aster ASI has put in so much funds from limited scope? Isn’t care about ASI politically motivated? In terms of funds you must check out the flow during NDA & UPA gov. I recommend RTI here, which you claim do as always

Dhruv you say that it’s better to upgrade services at existing Monuments that to spend 3000 cr. Mate, as mentioned earlier there are many ancillary spaces including Hotels, Convention Centres, Amusement Parks etc. Do you oppose such developments in your locality too? Don’t you visit luxury hotels, amusement parks, convention centres? If you r so appalled to development stop using Twitter & shaming people if they haven’t visited World Historical Monuments as you indirectly do in beginning of article. U can’t ride two boats as per your comfort.

Explain us in what lesser amount can you construct the spaces which are proposed as a part of Statue of Unity complex? So it’s better to stop your irrational analysis about 3000 crores without distributive understanding. You again naively compare revenue generation at Taj with proposed Statue of Unity complex & day that annual revenue of Taj is 25cr & hence it will take 120 years for Statue of Unity to recover investment with sane rate. And give it as the title of the article.

Mr Rathee, Taj receives revenue only from its marvel & aesthetics not from hospitality, retail, museums, institutions & commercial which are part of Statue of Unity complex. As said earlier if you want to compare Taj then you will need to consider equal amount of Built up area of hotels & other facilities (as in Statue of Unity) which r used while people dine and visit Taj. Otherwise it’s illogical & idiotic comparison.

Dhruv Rathee you made a bogus claims that maintenance cost is over & above 3000 cr. But he must be informed 657cr is meant for maintenance. He argues that visitor centres, museums and restaurants can’t help generate revenue. How selective & naive to put it. The complex has overall built up area of around 290000 sqft. Isn’t it bit too large than the image generated by words you put, viz, restaurants & museums? Any how much revenue such area of commercial space generates? It generates 40 cr on an avg.

Mr Rathee I request you to please respond to this rebuttal if stand by your numbers & stats. Awaiting !

AUTHOR : AABHAS K MALDAHIYAR, HE IS A PRACTICING URBAN-DESIGNER WITH ENORMOUS INTEREST IN POLITY, HISTORY, LITERATURE AND VARIOUS ART FORMS. HE IS AN INSTRUMENTAL TEAM MEMBER FOR GOI’S ‘NAMAMI GANGE’ PROJECT. HE HAS SO FAR AUTHORED TWO WORK OF FICTION. HIS LATEST BOOK IS ‘CROSSING THE LINE’.