These days, a giant golden statue of Mao got popular in the social media. It was built in a small Chinese village called Tongxu of Henan province. The local villagers have collected money to build a statue for their inspiring leader. It took almost a year for them to complete this 108 feet concrete statue. The giant statue proved to be expensive too! Almost 3 crores of rupees were collected to complete the statue. The statue did invite a lot of criticism on the social media. Some ridiculed the ‘Mao worship’ while some others called it as a waste of resources. “Why not use the money to improve local education?” questioned one of the critics. Henan province is one of the worst hit regions of famine. It is still one of the backward regions in China.

The brewing criticism might have provoked the Chinese authorities to take some counter action. The giant statue was now, torn down to pieces. People’s Daily- the mouth piece of the Communist Party of China (CPC) reported the structure being removed because, it doesn’t have any prior approval. But the news analysts feel otherwise. The government might have felt ridiculed by growing criticism against the statue or it might have felt that Mao is just a part of its history. Since three decades, the leaders of CPC have distanced themselves from the ideology of Mao and brought huge reforms in economy. So! The destruction of Mao statue leaves some questions unanswered.