Shaktimaan was a police horse who made headlines after he was allegedly beaten up by BJP Legislator Ganesh Joshi during a rally earlier this year.
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It appears that the government doesn’t want the people to be reminded of the horse, so much so that, a statue of the horse in state capital Dehradun has disappeared overnight. However the statue was later removed amid rising criticism. “Right now it was just a platform, I had advised that a park come up around the statue so that it reflects the sentiments of the state’s animal lovers”, he said. It was a horse statue. Adding to the bewilderment of local residents is the mysterious disappearance on Tuesday of another Shaktiman statue, this one more majestic and elegant, nearly overnight from its pedestal at Rispina Bridge near the assembly building here. But Mr. Rawat stayed away from the inauguration, saying he did not wish to “politicise” the issue of Shaktiman’s injury and its subsequent death.
But all the preparations went in vain because the chief minister of Uttrakhand Harish Rawat left the venue at the Police Lines on Monday. At the time, the state at was going through a political turmoil and the BJP said Mr Rawat was trying to stop Mr Joshi from voting in the assembly.
While the administration and the police denied commenting on the reasons behind the removal of the statue, Mr. Rawat’s media-in-charge Surendra Agarwal told The Hindu, “The platform for Shaktiman’s statue has to be modified and the statue was removed for the same goal”. I was not guided by any superstition.
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Following the removal of statue, a second statue of Shaktiman has been installed at the police headquarters but the future of the same is also not certain. “I had decided well before meeting him that I will not inaugurate the statue”.
