Therefore, I urge all of you to spare some minutes to read it. After all, it is necessary today. Then, I would certainly share my views on the project.

Shivaji Maharaj may be the only king in India to have been so venerated and celebrated even today. I may be wrong, but I do not see any other State in India doing so much for its respective king in today’s times. Even youths of this young generation like me in Maharashtra have fallen in love with this king. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s personality and message are as relevant today as they were in the past. Have you ever tried to know what extraordinary qualities did Shivaji Maharaj possess? In answer to this question, I will put quotes of some contemporary historians and eminent personalities later.

In the time when India was harassed by different enemies like Adilshah, Nijamshah, Kutubhshah and Mughals, when the people suffered a lot and when our mothers and sisters screamed for help, when kings from north to the south chose to keep quiet and be subservient to these mighty enemies, Shivaji Maharaj determined to fight these evils and release the people from the shackles of these cruel enemies. He dreamt of Independence and a state for the sons of the soil (Hindavi Swarajya) 350 years ago. He defied the authority of these Muslim kings and tried to unite people for a common cause.

His Kingdom was small compared to the Mughal Empire, but it was made by ‘our’ people, it was for ‘our’ people, it was ‘made in India’. It had all the elements of a democratic state. Even after deliberate attempts, historians could not find even one instance of corruption under his regime.

With his inspiration, later, the Marathas fought bravely and saved the country from being completely trampled under the feet of the Muslim rulers. All historians agree that had not been there the Maratha power, our country would have been a state like Pakistan.
Today, the armies of different countries study his guerilla tactics. The then President of Vietnam after defeating US said that they were inspired by King Shivaji and his guerilla tactics. You can even see a statue of Shivaji Maharaj in the Capital of Vietnam, Ho Chi Min.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said :
” Shivaji did not belong to Maharashtra alone; he belonged to the whole Indian nation.
Shivaji was not an ambitious ruler anxious to establish a kingdom for himself but a patriot inspired by a vision and political ideas derived from the teachings of the ancient philosophers. He studied the merits and faults of the systems of administration in kingdoms existing at the time and determined his own policies and administration in the light of that knowledge.
A devout Hindu, he was tolerant of other religions and established a number of endowments for maintainig sacred places belonging to them. As a general he was undoubtedly one of the greatest in Indian history; he saw the need for and raised a navy to guard his coastline and to fight against the British and the Dutch. Pratapgad Fort build in 1656 stands today as a monument to his military genius.
Shri Shivaji is a symbol of many virtues, more especially of love of country.”
A.B. de Braganca Pereira says in “Arquivo Portugues Oriental, Vol III”:
“Wonderous mystic, adventurous and intrepid, fortunate, roving prince, with lovely and magnetic eyes, pleasing countenance, winsome and polite,magnanimous to fallen foe like Alexander, keen and a sharp intellect, quick in decision, ambitious conqueror like Julius Caesar, given to action, resolute and strict disciplinarian, expert strategist, far-sighted and constructive statesman, brilliant organizer, who sagaciously countered his political rivals and antagonists like the Mughals, Turks of Bijapur, the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, and the French. Undaunted by the mighty Moghuls, then the greatest power in Asia. He fought with Bijapuri to carve out a great empire.”
D. Kincaid says in “The Grand Rebel”:
“In spite of the character of a crusade which Ramdas’s blessings gave to Shivaji’s long struggle, it is remarkable how little religious animosity or intolerance Shivaji displayed. His kindness to Catholic priests is an agreeable contrast to the proscriptions of the Hindu priesthood in the Indian and Maratha territories of the Portuguese. Even his enemies remarked on his extreme respect for Mussulman priests, for mosques and for the koran. The Muslim historian Khafi Khan, who cannot mention Shivaji in his cronicle without adding epithets of vulgar abuse, nevertheless acknowledges that Shivaji never entered a conquered town without taking measures to safeguard the mosques from damage. Whenever a koran came to his possession, he treated it with the same respect as if it had been one of the sacred works of his own faith. Whenever his men captured Mussulman ladies, they were brought to Shivaji, who looked after them as if they were his wards till he could return them to their relations.”
Cosme da Guarda says in “Life of the Celebrated Sevaji”:
“Such was the good treatment Shivaji accorded to people and such was the honesty with which he observed the capitulations that none looked upon him without a feeling of love and confidence. By his people he was exceedingly loved. Both in matters of reward and punishment he was so impartial that while he lived he made no exception for any person; no merit was left unrewarded, no offence went unpunished; and this he did with so much care and attention that he specially charged his governors to inform him in writing of the conduct of his soldiers, mentioning in particular those who had distinguished themselves, and he would at once order their promotion, either in rank or in pay, according to their merit. He was naturally loved by all men of valor and good conduct.”
Indira Gandhi said:
“I think Shivaji ranks among the greatest men of the world. Since we were a slave country, our great men have been somewhat played down in world history. Had the same person been born in a European country, he would have been praised to the skies and known everywhere. It would have been said that he had illumined the world.”
The poet Bhushan
दावा द्रुमदंड पर चित्ता मृग झुंड पर, भूषण बितंड पर जैसे मृगराज हैं ।
तॆज तम अंशपर काह्न जिम कंसपर, त्यॊंमिलेच्छवंसपर शर शिवराज हैं ॥
(As forest-fire is to the forest trees, a leopard to the deer-herds and a lion to the stately elephants; as the sun is to the darkness of the night, as Krishna was to Kansa, so was king Sivaji, a lion, towards the hordes of Mlechchas.)
Swami Vivekananda
“Shivaji was the greatest Hindu king that India had produced within the last thousand years; one who was the very incarnation of Siva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the Hindus from the hands of the Mlechchas and one who succeeded in the establishment of the Dharma which had been trampled under foot by the depredations of the devastating hordes of the Moghals. This may not come in your reading Indian History written by foreigners who could have no sympathy with you, nor could they have any respect for your culture, traditions, manners and customs which they could not understand. Is there a greater hero, a greater saint, a greater bhakta and a greater king than Sivaji? Sivaji was the very embodiment of a born ruler of men as typified in your great Epics. He was the type of the real son of India representing the true consciousness of the nation. It was he who showed what the future of India is going to be sooner or later, a group of independent units under one umbrella as it were, i.e., under one supreme imperial suzerainty.”
Many foreign travellers who visited India during Shivaji Maharaj’s time wrote about him.
Abbe Carre was a French traveller who visited India around 1670; his account was published as Voyage des Indes Orienteles mele de plusiers histories curieuses at Paris in 1699. Some quotes:
“Hardly had he won a battle or taken to town in one end of the kingdom than he was at the other extremity causing havoc everywhere and surprising important places. To this quickness of movement he added, like Julius Caesar, a clemency and bounty that won him the hearts of those his arms had worsted.” “In his courage and rapidity he does not ill resemble the king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus.”
The French traveller Francois Bernier wrote in his Travels in Mughal India:
“I forgot to mention that during pillage of Sourate, Seva-ji, the Holy Seva-ji! Respected the habitation of the reverend father Ambrose, the Capuchin missionary. ‘The Frankish Padres are good men’, he said ‘and shall not be attacked.’ He spared also the house of a deceased Delale or Gentile broker, of the Dutch, because assured that he had been very charitable while alive.”
Coming back to the 350-crore project, I rarely see any Marathi name in this list. What is the reason? Do you fear that Marathi people will not endorse your campaign?
Sharing my view on this project, I strongly feel that if the Government want to leverage political mileage from this project, it is not good. In fact, many of the forts in Maharashtra are completely neglected and are in dire need of conversation. So the government has even no moral right to speak for the project. But, I will personally justify the project, after all the economical, financial, ecological, environmental and social aspects are properly studied. Because Shivaji Maharaj is a great source of inspiration for us. While looking at the statue, let the world know who this King Shivaji was!

As regard the colossal money, last month I saw on a news channel that one Dinesh Patel had amassed Rs 10 crore in cash in his home. He was a tax defaulter. Police took away the money. Only yesterday again I read that the MP police confiscated Rs 12 crore from one Mittal. He is an industrialist and a tax defaulter too. Our Members of Parliament are staying in 5-star hotels making bills in lacs of Rupees every month. We face corporate scams like that of Satyam involving thousands of crores of Rupees. How many of such tax defaulters, MPs and Fraudsters we need to make 350 crore? And 350 crore is not a big amount for a State like Maharashtra, if the government is sincere and not corrupt.

And please do not mix the development projects and farmers’ suicides with the project of statue of Shivaji Maharaj. There are hundreds of development projects running. Effective implementation and corruption is the problem. There are different reasons for the farmers’ suicides. Each farmer has his own reasons. I am also a son of a farmer from Pune district and our entire land is dependent on rain water. I have not seen any farmer committing suicide in our area or district.
So, I doubt that the people of Maharashtra would support your campaign.
Regards,
Maruti

G.. mein nahin Guu aur hagne chala Juhu.

All da best .. If you suceeed we all party at our own expense

As for Vishal, he has moved on to bigger and better things, such as Mummy Ke Superstars.