India

Ambedkar’s statue vandalised in Allahabad, third such incident this month

In yet another incident of vandalism, a statue of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was damaged by in Uttar Pradesh. The incident took place in Trivenipuram Jhunsi in Allahabad district.

The development comes after the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh kicked up a row by passing an order to add ‘Ramji’ in the name of the Dalit icon.

Previously, at least five such incidents have been reported from Aligarh, Meerut and other parts. The statues of Ambedkar in the Gandhi Park area and in a park in the Ghantaghar area of Aligarh were found broken on March 5.

Earlier this month, a statue of B R Ambedkar was vandalised in Meerut district’s Mawana Khurd.

ALSO READ: Bhimrao ‘Ramji’ Aambedkar: Yogi orders change of Dalit leader’s name in official records

According to a news report in Delhi based News18, Uttar Pradesh police swung into action and rushed a team to the spot to avoid any untoward incident.

A finger of a BR Ambedkar statue was found broken in Aligarh, following which local residents had protested. Last year also there were reports of Ambedkar statue vandalism in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.

Calling B R Ambedkar a “holy symbol”, Dalit activist John Dayal condemned the incident. He further said BJP should expel H Raja for his ‘casteist Periyar’ post, which was put up hours before the Periyar statue was vandalised in Tamil Nadu.

Earlier, Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan hit out at the Central government over the vandalizing of the Periyar statue in Vellore.

ALSO READ: ‘No need to deploy police for protection of Periyar Statue, we Tamilians will protect it ourselves’

Addressing a press conference, he said, “There is no need to deploy police to protect the Periyar statue in Coimbatore. We Tamilians will protect it,” he said, alleging that this issue had been raised to divert attention from the formation of the Cauvery management board.

Senior BJP leader H Raja had posted the message on social networking site Facebook after alleged BJP supporters used a earth-mover to bring down a statue of communist revolutionary Lenin in Tripura, two days after the party won the assembly elections in the state.

“Who is Lenin? What is the relevance he holds in India? What is the link between communism and India? Lenin’s statues were destroyed in Tripura, tomorrow, in Tamil Nadu, casteist Periyar’s statues will be destroyed,” he wrote.

ALSO READ: Amid chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, statue of Lenin brough down in Tripura

Later, Raja expressed regrets over his social media post on which denigrated social reformer Periyar E V Ramasamy. In a new message on his Facebook page on Wednesday, Raja blamed his associates for uploading the post denigrating Periyar without his knowledge.

 

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