If only Mahatma Gandhi could stage a protest under the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road, Calcutta’s favourite venue for demonstrations.
The 65-year-old bronze statue has been without the iconic Gandhi glasses for over three years now and two state government departments are quibbling over whose job it is to replace them.
As the statue was washed and prepared for Gandhi’s 154th birthday and garlanded by political leaders and administrative heads, a number of protestors demonstrated near it even on Monday. None mentioned the missing glasses.
The spectacles on the statue were smashed by Cyclone Amphan in May 2020.
On Monday, state public works department officials said it was for the department of information and cultural affairs to commission the work for the new spectacles. Information and cultural affairs officials said it was the PWD’s job to “maintain” all statues.
A PWD chief engineer, Siddhartha Mandal, told Metro that only the department of information and cultural affairs could “throw some light” on the matter.
“I will not be able to say anything about this. It is for the department of information and cultural affairs to commission the work,” Mandal said.
Mitra Chatterjee, director of information and ex-officio special secretary in the information and cultural affairs department, told this newspaper: “Only the PWD is responsible for the maintenance of statues.”
This newspaper reported on April 10, 2022, that the PWD had engaged an artisan from Kalighat’s Patuapara to recreate Gandhi’s round glasses and fix them on his bridge. However, two Gandhi Jayantis later, the statue sculpted by Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury in 1958 and inaugurated by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has yet to get its glasses back.
Last year, PWD officials had said the work would be completed at the earliest.
On Monday, several PWD officials Metro spoke to sang a different tune. “Initially, I heard that this work was to be done by us. But later we were told that this would be done by the information and cultural affairs department,” said a PWD engineer.
This newspaper tried to contact PWD minister Pulak Roy. Initially, he said he was “in a meeting”. Later, calls from this newspaper were disconnected.
Last year, artisan Pintu Pal had said he had carved out a pair of bronze spectacles — weighing around 2kg and around 18 inches wide from ear to ear — and submitted them to the PWD for approval.
Pal could not be contacted on Monday.
A replica of Gandhi’s round glasses that he was wearing at the time of his demise in 1948 is lying with the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya in Barrackpore. The original spectacles that Gandhi wore when he was shot are at the National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi.
Pratik Ghosh, director-secretary at the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, said on Monday the round glasses were a symbol of the longing of the Father of the Nation for “swachhata (cleanliness)”.
“Without his glasses, the bronze statue is indeed incomplete and does not reflect his principles of simplicity and honesty and his longing for cleanliness,” Ghosh said.
Gandhi started wearing glasses only after the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920.
The Gandhi statue, which was placed at the Park Street-Chowringhee Road crossing before being shifted to its current location, has been a seat of protest for thousands of Calcuttans over the years.
At least two groups of men and women protesting the alleged irregularities in school recruitments sit under the statue every day from 10am till 5pm.