MUMBAI: The month-long stand-off between the state government and the Shiv Sena over the temporary memorial erected to deceased Sena chief Bal Thackeray at Shivaji Park ended in the government's favour early on Tuesday morning with the saffron party entirely removing the structure and immersing it in the sea in a hush-hush operation conducted amidst tight security.
TOI had reported in its late edition on Monday that Shiv Sainiks had put up screens round the platform and begun dismantling it.
At 3am Tuesday, sources said Sainiks tried to shift the memorial to an alternative site in the park, between the Shivaji statue and Shivaji Park Nagrik Sangh, but police foiled the attempt. By 8am, the 'chowthara' (platform), bricks and other materials used to erect the memorial, as well as a diya lit as an 'eternal flame' were immersed in the sea off Dadar beach. Hundreds of cops were deployed at the park after the dismantling.
For a month since Thackeray's cremation on November 18 at the park, several Sena leaders kept demanding a permanent memorial there.
After a climbdown from having a grand memorial, Sena leaders like MP Sanjay Raut insisted that the samadhi site would not be given up. Finally, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said the temporary memorial would be shifted to another spot in the park. Meanwhile, the government remained firm that no further permanent construction could be legally allowed inside the park. While Raut wrote to the BMC saying the structure would be removed on December 17, a month after Thackeray's death, other Sena leaders had said it would not be touched until the BMC gave an alternative site.
However, though the structure has not been relocated in the ground, the Sena is still pressing its demand for a memorial. At the BMC group leader's meeting on Tuesday, the Sena tabled a proposal for a 40-by-20-foot space in the park for a memorial. Sainiks also plan to ask for a plot on a BMC ground opposite Shivaji Park.
The dismantling plans were initially guarded in secrecy. At midnight, while bhajans were sung at the site, senior Sena leaders refused to part with any information about the temporary structure. At around 1am, digging began around the makeshift memorial. It was done by men working for the same contractor who had set up the memorial. Green cloth was hung on a bamboo framework to shield the memorial from public view. "We want to shield the memorial during the removal. We don't want to give the media a single visual while dismantling this. Our feelings should be taken into consideration as this is sacred to us," said a Sena corporator.
By 2.30am, the actual removal began amidst tight police security and the presence of a few Sena leaders, including mayor Sunil Prabhu and civic standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale. A soil extractor was used and all the materials loaded into a truck. The ground was returned to the state it was in before the funeral.
BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte has said he would look into the Sena's demand for another spot at Shivaji Park to erect a memorial.
Shiv Sena removes temporary memorial of Bal Thackeray from Shivaji Park
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Shiv Sena removes temporary memorial of Bal Thackeray from Shivaji Park
