2 Ambedkar statues vandalised in UP in 24 hours, protests triggered

LUCKNOW: In the latest incident of statue defacing, a sculptor of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar was damaged in Siddharthnagar's Gohaniya of Uttar Pradesh. This is the second incident of vandalism within 24 hours. One of the hands of the statue was damaged by unidentified people.

The incident took place on Friday night. Following the incident, locals staged a protest.

Statue of BR Ambedkar vandalised by miscreants in Siddharthnagar's Gohaniya last night; locals stage protest demanding action against the culprit pic.twitter.com/Ce3RHbxbGh — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 31, 2018

Earlier today, another sculptor of Ambedkar was damaged in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad. The incident took place on Saturday in Jhunsi's Trivenipuram. The head of the statue was completed destroyed by miscreants.

Despite strong words by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and clear directives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, there seems to be no end to incidents of vandalism of statues of iconic leaders and ideologues. Several incidents of statue vandalism have been reported from various parts of the country over the last few months.

Last week, the Rajasthan Police had arrested one person for vandalising the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Jaisalmer. This came just days after a statue of country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was defaced in Katwa's Telephone Maidan in West Bengal.

In another related incident earlier this month, a statue of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee was found vandalised in Assam's Kokrajhar. Also, a life-size statue of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, a prominent poet during the 19th century Bengal renaissance, was found defaced in Raniganj of West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district.

Reports of incidents of statues vandalism started emerging soon after the results of the Assembly elections in Tripura were announced. Following the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Left bastion, a mob demolished a statue of Communist ideologue Vladimir Lenin in Tripura.

Following this, a statue of Dravidian ideologue 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy was damaged in Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. This was followed by defacing statues of Dr BR Ambedkar in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and Mahatma Gandhi in Taliparamba in Kannur district of Kerala.

These incidents have sparked a war of words between political parties as well. PM Modi, however, had recently made an appeal to people to not indulge in the vandalism of statues. Following this, the Union Home Ministry had issued a directive to states to ensure that no such incidents take place.