As the unveiling of Jayalalithaa’s life-size bronze statue fizzled and crashed, a look at a few statues in India that have previously waded into controversial waters.Credit: Twitter/The WireNew Delhi: India has a penchant for statues and for putting idols literally on a pedestal as a way of remembering their days of glory. It’s a practice followed in the West as well, but India stands head and shoulders above others in casting its glorious leaders in stone and metal.This week, the AIADMK unveiled a bronze life-size statue of the late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to mark her 70th birth anniversary. What was unexpected was the outrage that led to the statue becoming the viral topic of the day alongside the mystery of Sridevi’s passing.That’s because the 350-kg statue looks nothing like the late leader.Perhaps that’s why the AIADMK has not revealed how much the bronze effigy cost. After all, getting the face of the founder of the party wrong for a statue meant to be a tribute to her is an obvious way of opening oneself up to ridicule.The sculptor of the bronze statue, B.S.V. Prasad of Andhra Pradesh, has offered to replace it free of cost, the Times of India reported. “Before delivery, I sent pictures of the completed sculpture to AIADMK leaders and they approved it,” he said.Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palanisami and deputy chief minister O. Panneerselvam were present at the “upbeat” unveiling of the statue.“Today we have unveiled the statue of Amma. When she was alive, she faced a lot of obstacles in her life. We have faced many obstacles as well. We have passed all those hurdles and come out successful,” said Palaniswami.According to The Week, Panneerselvam followed his speech and said: “This is a very important day for the people of AIADMK. We have celebrated this day to do welfare for the people of Tamil Nadu. But today we are standing with heart-wrenching emotions and tear-filled eyes, covering all this with a plastered smile, while unveiling Amma’s statue.”But critics on Twitter made sure, the moment a photo was uploaded from the event, that the statue “doesn’t even resemble” Jayalalithaa. While some said it looked like the face of an old lady, others even matched it with her friend Sasikala’s face. Yet others found similarities with the face of the chief minister’s wife.can anyone find 10 similarities between Jayalalitha & this statue pic.twitter.com/kOzNJtmefb— Niteesh21 (@niteesh28) February 25, 2018Match Found ????? #ChinnamaStatue #jayalalithaastatue pic.twitter.com/iCUFtbG6fH— Kanna® (@ikannatwit) February 24, 2018Social media people showing and comparing the Amma’s statue with TN CM #EPS‘s wife Picture and said look a like. pic.twitter.com/yyqNumkVFl— நம்மவர் (@jothibharathi) February 24, 2018T.T.V. Dhinakaran, rebel leader and Sasikala’s nephew, had a few words.”I don’t know whose amma’s statue it is. Is it the mother of EPS or OPS?” he asked, referring to Palanisamy and Panneerselvam. “It is in no way close to Amma (Jayalalithaa).”Statues have long been part of the political agenda of various parties and groups. The country is dotted with statues, sculptures and busts of leaders who in some cases decided to memorialise themselves even while they’re alive and breathing.Late last year, Yogi Adityanath announced that a grand statue of Lord Ram would be built on the banks of the Saryu river in Ayodhya. “The Centre immediately approved a grant of nearly Rs 134 crore for its construction as also for the development of Ayodhya as a tourist hub. The statue, which will be over a 100 metres tall, may ultimately cost several thousand crores, say experts,” Rashme Sehgal reported for The Wire.The Wire takes a quick look at a few of the recent statue-based controversies.The Mayawati memorialsMayawati, during her tenure as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was notorious for setting up memorials, so much so that it may have cost her the last few elections as the public was unhappy about how its funds had been used.The statues were not just of herself, but of her party’s symbol – the elephant – and its founder-mentor Kanshi Ram, besides other dalit icons.Credit: PTIMostly made of red sandstone, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) told the Supreme Court that the statues are “symbols of Dalit assertion”.Even as the Akhilesh Yadav government went after Mayawati’s statue spree, claiming she had wasted Rs 40,000 crore on parks and memorials, a report compiled by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) said that a total of Rs 5,919 crore had been spent on the construction of these structures at nine different locations in Lucknow, Noida and Greater Noida. This figure did not account the cost of land.A towering Sardar PatelIn 2010, the Gujarat government announced plans to erect a statue that would measure 182 metres, pedestal included, beating China’s Spring Temple Buddha, a 128-metre statue (excluding the pedestal) located in Henan, China, that had itself pipped the Statue of Liberty as the tallest statue in the world.The monument being built to honour Sardar Vallabhai Patel, India’s first deputy prime minister, will face the Narmada Dam water reservoir when completed. “The vision of the statue is rather austere; the politician will be depicted as calm and standing, apparently without any attributes,” read reports.The Gujarat government started building a colossal statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in October 2014. Credit: ReutersThe construction of the ‘Statue of Unity project’, as it is called, is being looked after by the same company – Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) – that took part in the construction of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. In 2014, the government had issued a work order of Rs 2,979 crore to the company.In reply to a question by Siddhpur MLA Balwantsinh Rajput, the Gujarat government said in 2017 that it had so far spent Rs 433.57 crore and is likely to spend Rs 1,979.05 crore more.That’s a lot of money to try an instil a sense of national fervour and pride. The statue has been criticised by various quarters about how it is an extreme waste of money especially since the same amount would have helped improve the lives of many if it had been applied to social welfare schemes instead.“Contrast this statue extravaganza with how the Modi government has drastically cut funds for child health interventions from Rs 15,483.77 crore to Rs 14,000 crore in the last budget,” writes Rashme Sehgal.The colossal Shivaji statueNot to be left behind, Maharashtra joined the competition to build the world’s tallest statue. While the Gujarat government started building the Patel statue in October 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Shiv Smarak, a grand memorial to Chhatrapati Shivaji, near Mumbai on 24 December 2016, at a reclaimed land site in the Arabian sea.The Shivaji Memorial will be about 190 metres high. However, in a bid to outdo one another, with the base, the height of the Sardar Patel memorial will be 230 metres and that of the Shivaji statue will be 210 metres.Concept plan of the Shivaji Memorial in Arabian Sea. courtesy: Maharashtra government.“In a country grappling with considerable poverty and social problems, spending millions of dollars on statues must be controversial and having the two tallest statues in the world instead of one can double the critique,” opined The Diplomat.In an open letter published in the Indian Express, Ujjal Dosanjh, a Canadian politician of Indian origin, wrote: “Dear Prime Minister: You are once again thrusting India into the dangerous politics of statues; the politics of pandering to regional and other identities; the politics of turning real heroes into the lifeless steel and stone kind — for any pigeons to freely relieve themselves on; the heinous politics of clever, but criminal distraction from the life and death issues of poverty, corruption, injustice and inequality in India.”But the sculptor of the Shivaji statue, Ram Sutar, offered this counterargument: “If people had worried about how much the Taj Mahal would cost, it would never have been built.”In his speech at Navi Mumbai airport’s foundation stone ceremony this month, Modi promised that the memorial to Shivaji will be ready by 2022.But since it was first conceived 12 years ago, the budget for Shivaji’s statue has risen more than 35 times. In 2004, the budget was around Rs 100 crore, which jumped to Rs 700 crore in 2009, Rs 1,400 crore in 2013 and Rs 3,600 crore in 2016.Now, recent estimates suggest it would cost Rs 4,000 crore.The Buddha statue in Hyderabad that cost 10 livesIn 1990, 10 people died while attempting to instal a massive granite statue of the Buddha in Hyderabad’s Hussain Sagar Lake.Buddha statue, Hussain Sagar, Hyderabad. Credit: WikimediaThe barge used to transport the statue to the middle of the lank capsized and sank, The statue was the pet project of Telugu Desam Party founder N.T. Rama Rao. It took two years for the statue to be recovered