New Delhi: After the destruction of statues of Lenin, Periyar, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Syama Prasad Mukherjee, now a statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been damaged by a local in Kannur, Kerala.
The miscreant tried to take the spectacles and garland from Mahatma Gandhi’s statue and run away.
The incident took place at Talaiperambu, 65 km away from Kannur on Wednesday night.
The police have identified a local as the miscreant. He is known to be mentally imbalanced and is currently absconding.
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He had no political affiliations and police have ruled out ideological or political reasons.
No arrests have been made in the case so far.
At least six statues have been destroyed or vandalised in the last 60 hours in 5 different states. The condemnable actions began on Tuesday in Tripura as two statues of socialist-communist ideologue Lenin were demolished after the BJP unseated the long-running Left government in the North East state.
Also on Tuesday, a statue of Dravidian movement leader Periyar was vandalised in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore.
On Wednesday, apart from the incident in Kolkata described above, a statue of Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar was destroyed in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut.
The Prime Minister has condemned the vandalism while BJP party president Amit Shah has tweeted strongly against any member of his party indulging in such statue politics. The events have triggered a nationwide political debate.