YES

Follow their values 

It is useless to put up a statue when most citizens don’t even bother to know whose statue it is. The figure is garlanded once in a while — maybe on the birth or death anniversary — and birds use it as a perch and leave droppings on it. To respect these famous people, we need to follow the values laid by them rather than turn them into a stone idol.

Sonal Joyce Ranjit, 
Class X, Loreto Day School, Dharamtala, Calcutta 

Imbibe the ideals

Instead of putting up statues, it is important to imbibe the teachings and ideals of these great men and women and pass them on to the next generation. Most of these statues only gather dust, get damaged and lie in neglect.

Meghna Roy, 
Class X, Vivekananda Mission School, Joka, Calcutta

Beautification

In many places, statues are erected as a part of beautification projects inside parks or along riversides. The allocated fund can be better utilised for urban forestry to replenish depleted natural resources in urban areas.

Piyush Nawalgaria, 
Class XII, St Joan’s School, Salt Lake, Calcutta

Unaware of the deeds

Probably there are thousands of statues of Gandhi, Buddha, Tagore, Vivekananda and Ambedkar across India. But how many citizens are aware of their good deeds? Have these statues made any impact on people?

Subhashini Majumder, 
First year, History, J.K. College, Purulia

Show business

Nowadays statues are erected by MPs and MLAs to utilise their local area development fund. This is merely a “show” business meant to impress citizens. The fund can be better used to develop schools, rebuild roads and erect orphanages or shelters for the homeless.

M. Singh, 
Third year, M.B. College, Imphal, Manipur

Unaware of the deeds

Living in a country driven by political emotions, the construction of statues of people is a waste of time and money. A statue set up by a group of people can later be vandalised or demolished by another group of people. 

Mehnaz Hossain, 
Class XII, Our Lady Queen of The Missions School, Salt Lake, Calcutta

NO

Token of respect

Statues symbolise importance of a person and the good deeds he or she did for the masses. They also serve as reminders to the general public who doesn’t know too much about these personas. It is a simple way of paying respect to the person.

Hemochandra Sorokhaibami, 
North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong

Learning cue

Putting up statues is surely one of the ways to commemorate famous personalities. Children especially get to know about their remarkable contributions to the society and learn to appreciate values. Statues also prevent these individuals from sinking into oblivion.

Patrali Pradhan, 
Third year, Bethune College, Calcutta

Way to show respect 

Putting up statues of famous people is a way to respect them. Just like we show respect and love to our family members by hanging their pictures on the walls after their demise, this is a similar gesture for public figures.

Deeptanshu Dev Karmakar, 
Class XI, Indira Gandhi Memorial School, Calcutta