A life-sized bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhipositioned right here in Union Square close to Manhattanwas vandalised on Saturday, an act strongly condemned as ‘despicable’ by the Consulate General of India, triggering shock and disappointment among the many Indian-American group.
The incident befell early on Saturday, when the statue was defaced by some unknown individuals, the Consulate General of India in New York stated. “The Consulate condemns this act of vandalism in the strongest terms,” it stated, including that the matter has been taken up with native authorities.
“The matter has also been taken up with the US State Department for immediate investigation and urged appropriate action against those responsible for this despicable act,” it stated.
The 8-foot-high statue was donated by the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, and was devoted on October 2, 1986 to mark the 117th delivery anniversary of Gandhi.
American civil rights chief Bayard Rustin had delivered a keynote speech on the ceremony.
Incidentally, the statue was eliminated in 2001, conserved and reinstalled in a panorama backyard space in 2002. Last month, unknown miscreants had equally vandalised, damaged and ripped from the bottom one other statue of Gandhi in a park within the US state of California.
The 6-ft tall, 294kg bronze statue located within the Central Park of the City of Davis in Northern California, appeared to have been sawed off on the ankles and half its face was severed and lacking, native Davis Enterprise newspaper had reported.
It was donated by the Indian authorities to town of Davis and was put in by town council 4 years in the past, amid protests from anti-Gandhi and anti-India organisations.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
