The Lohia Maidan is a landmark of Margao, the square from where a number of calls have gone out for citizen’s movements, but it now appears that the next call to be made could well be to save the maidan and the monuments within. It is not yet in danger of being destroyed, but a day after Herald reported that the memorial stone of Lohia Maidan and the statue of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, after who it has been named, had been left abandoned on the open ground, as if these were just pieces of stone, the statue went ‘missing’ from the maidan that is under renovation.
The maidan commemorates Revolution Day, June 18, 1946, when Lohia and his friend Dr Juliao Menezes were arrested by the Portuguese authorities just before they were to address a meeting in Margao. It was the day that changed the course of the freedom struggle and the call went out for civil liberties. There is an 18th June Kranti Din Samiti and this committee had requested that the statue of the freedom fighter be kept in their office during the period when the work on the maidan would be going on. But this was not done by those involved in giving the maidan a makeover.
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When Herald visited the Lohia Maidan on Thursday, it found the memorial stone among the debris and mud, the statue of Lohia between the two temporary huts constructed for the labourers with mud over it. Herald reported this, with pictures. The reasoning for leaving the memorial stone unattended was that it was too heavy to be moved. However, the very next day, when the local MLA went to the maidan to see the conditions for himself, the martyr’s memorial, which a day earlier had been too heavy to be moved, had been shifted from the maidan, and so too had the statue been spirited away, which was when it was said to be ‘missing’, but the explanation now is that the statue has been taken for repairs.
This is a monument to commemorate a certain date in history and a personality whose role in Goa’s freedom struggle is a part of school syllabus. Yet, in the 60th year of Liberation, as the State focuses on a grand culmination of the year on December 19, the statue and the memorial stone first being left unattended, and then missing reveals just what respect the authorities have for the persons who played a major role in the freedom struggle. This is utter callousness on the part of the authorities and if the explanation now being given that the statue has been taken for repairs is true, it signifies that the statue has been damaged. How did this happen? Can anybody reveal what is the damage, how it occurred, when it occurred? Had Herald not reported on the statue being left neglected, it might have still been lying at the same place, so when was it noticed that it required repairs?
The Lohia Maidan is definitely missing something, and it is respect and concern of the authorities for history and heritage. Lohia Maidan is not just any piece of ground, but one that has historic value and the monument and the statue cannot be treated so callously. Before starting on the renovation work of the maidan, arrangements should have been made to keep the statue and the memorial stone safely. For the State and local authorities, Lohia is remembered once a year on June 18, and then forgotten the rest of the year. This is the reason why nobody in positions of authority thought that the statue and memorial stone deserved to be kept safe.
