After Lenin and Periyar, vandals target statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Ambedkar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong condemnation of incidents of vandalism of statues in different parts of the country seems to be no deterrent for the miscreants. According to latest reports, a statue of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was defaced by an unidentified person in Kerala on Thursday morning.

According to Mathrubhoomi, the Mahatma Gandhi statue was damaged at taluk office in Taliparamba in Kannur district of Kerala. The incident occurred at around 7 am on Thursday.

The report said that the unidentified miscreant broke the spectacles, damaged the garland and hurled stones on the statue. The police have launched an investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported that unidentified people poured paint on the bust of Dr BR Ambedkar at Tiruvottiyur near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu: Unidentified miscreants poured paint on the bust of Dr BR Ambedkar in Tiruvottiyur, Chennai last night. pic.twitter.com/sXtW8z49kz

— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2018

This comes a day after PM Modi strongly condemned such incidents and spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the issue.

"Incidents of toppling of statues have been reported from certain parts of the country. MHA has taken serious notes of such incidents of vandalism. PM also spoke to Home Minister in this regard and has expressed his strong disapproval of such incidents," the Ministry of Home Affairs had said in a statement on Wednesday.

The MHA also asked the states to take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents. "Persons indulging in such acts must be sternly dealt with and booked under relevant provisions of law," the MHA said.

There have been multiple incidents of statues being vandalised in various parts of the country. It started with the demolition of a statue of Vladimir Lenin with the help of a bulldozer in Tripura after Left Front’s debacle in the state Assembly elections. Another statue of Lenin was vandalised despite directives from the Centre.

Following this, a statue of Dravidian ideologue ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy was damaged in Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. Two persons – one from BJP and the other from CPI – were arrested in connection with the incident.

And this continued with the vandalism of a statue of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee in Jadavpur University in West Bengal and Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

(With agency inputs)