Vandals target Mahatma Gandhi bust, deity’s idol

Lucknow: Amid the ongoing spate of incidents targeting statues and busts of known figures, a statue of Hindu deity Lord Hanuman was desecrated in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district, sparking tension in the area. In another incident, a bust of Mahatma Gandhi was defaced in Kerala’s Kannur district by a mentally-challenged man.

The Uttar Pradesh police has registered a case over the desecration of Hanuman’s statue in Kharua village on Wednesday. Ram Dinesh Tiwari, SHO, Nagra, said that the statue was damaged and a poster was also found pasted on it. The damaged statue has been removed and will be replaced with a new one, he said. This is the second such incident in Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours. On Wednesday, Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s statue was found desecrated in Meerut. In Kerala, the spectacle carving on Mahatma Gandhi’s bust on the premises of the taluk office was damaged and the statue’s garland was thrown on the ground in Kannur district’s Taliparamba town by a mentally-challenged man who was arrested.

P. Dinesan, 42, hailing from Pariyaram, was taken into custody from Iringal, police said. The police said that a CCTV visual had shown the suspect walking away from the site.

Some people claimed that they saw the accused hurling a stone at the statue before fleeing, an official said.

These incidents of vandalism are the latest in a series of similar incidents being reported from various parts of the country  since the BJP won Tripura elections.

In Kolkata, a bust of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee was damaged on Wednesday following the razing of statues of Communist icon Vladimir Illyich Lenin in Tripura.

The bust of Dravidian movement founder E.V. Ramasamy Periyar in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore was also desecrated triggering widespread protests across the state.