Statue vandalism: Now, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's statue defaced in Jabalpur

Representational image (File pic)

Jabalpur: Another instance of statue vandalism or defacing has cropped up. This time from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur. A white statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was smeared with red colour on Friday morning. 

Taking note of the offence, local administration and police have initiated the preliminary investigation. 

Several incidents of statue vandalism has been reported from various parts of the country in the last one week. 

Two statues of Vladimir Lenin was demolished by a mob in Tripura last week – one razed by mob, another at Sabroom Motor Stand in Agartala and another by a bulldozer at Belonia College Square in a Tripura town. 

On Friday, BJP leader Ram Madhav said that the statue of Lenin here was not vandalised but removed by people who had placed it. m. "No statue has been broken in Tripura. This is false information. Some people had put a statue on a private land and then removed it. It is not vandalism," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Following the vandalism of the idols of Communist icon, a statue of Dravidian ideologue ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy was damaged in Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. This was followed by defacing statues of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee in Jadavpur University in West Bengal, Dr BR Ambedkar in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and Mahatma Gandhi in Taliparamba in Kannur district of Kerala was defaced.

As if destroying statues of leaders was not enough, miscreants targeted a statue of Lord Hanuman in Kharuav village in Uttar Pradesh's Balia. A poster was stuck on the idol. 

With spikes in incidents of statue vandalism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned all such incidents and spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh for strict action against the guilty.

"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 said on Wednesday.

Reacting to the issue, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Some may support Lenin, some may support Ho Chi Minh, some may support Karl Marx, some may support Syama Prasad Mookerjee. One may not agree with them but no one should show disrespect or destroy the statues."

With agency inputs