'Jesus was born in Vatican': BJP leaders attack Shivakumar's statue gift

Shivakumar on Christmas laid the foundation for a statue of Jesus Christ at Harobele

D.K. Shivakumar twitter D.K. Shivakumar at the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the proposed statue | Via Twitter

Building of statues is one area where politicians strive to outdo one another all the time. As snide jokes over Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the Statue of Unity showed, it is also an area where the rhetoric can become bitter and bizarre, or both at the same time.

It was no different when Congress leader and former minister D.K. Shivakumar on Christmas day laid the foundation stone for a statue of Jesus Christ at Harobele, in his constituency of Kanakapura.

Shivakumar had paid approximately Rs 10.8 lakh to purchase the land from the state government during the last tenure of H.D. Kumaraswamy as chief minister. The statue is expected to be 114-feet tall and would replace a smaller one erected over a century ago. Shivakumar's office had described the proposed Jesus statue, to be made from granite, as the tallest monolith structure of Christ in the world.

Not surprisingly, Shivakumar's critics in the Karnataka BJP have criticised the move.

K.S. Eshwarappa, Karnataka's minister for rural development and Panchayati Raj, tweeted about the statue on December 26. Writing in Kannada, Eshwarappa criticised Congress leaders for opposing the construction of a Ram temple (in Ayodhya), but were going "out of their way to create a statue of Jesus, who was born in the Vatican."According to the Holy Bible, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem in Palestine. UNESCO recognises the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as being “identified by Christian tradition as the birthplace of Jesus since the 2nd century”.

BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje tweeted that the statue of Jesus Christ was an attempt at "shamelessly appeasing a particular section". Karandlaje asked why there were no statues of "Basaweshwara, Kempegowda, Krishnadevaraya, not even Lord Rama or Krishna" and questioned whether it was an attempt to appease Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde played on the Sonia Gandhi 'angle', tweeting the statue of Jesus Christ was an attempt to curry favour with the "Italian" (apparently referring to the Congress chief). Hegde also referred to Shivakumar as "Tihar returned", in a jibe at the Congress leader who was jailed in a money-laundering case.

Eshwarappa also referred to political motives behind the statue by Shivakumar, as the post of Karnataka Congress chief is currently vacant.

Another BJP MP, Pratap Simha, tweeted asking whether the statue of Jesus Christ was a means to increase conversions to Christianity in the region.

Shivakumar rejected all the criticism, telling mediapersons he was just fulfilling a promise made to residents of Harobele. Shivakumar was quoted by ANI as saying, " In my constituency, I have built hundreds of temples. More than 30 acres of property in three locations have been given to government education institutions."

However, Shivakumar's plan for the Jesus statue may be in for complications. The News Minute reported on Saturday that the B.S. Yediyurappa government is examining the transfer of land to Shivakumar as it was meant for grazing. Revenue Minister R Ashoka was quoted by The News Minute as saying he had sought a report from the Ramnagara district authorities on the allotment of land.

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