GANDHI’S STATUE BROKEN, RIPPED FROM BASE IN CALIFORNIA

Sat 30 January 2021:

A group of unknown people have vandalised, broken and ripped from the base a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in a park in the US state of California, shocking and outraging Indian-Americans across the country, who have demanded that the officials investigate it as an incident of hate crime.

The 6-ft tall, 650-pound (294 kg) bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi, in the Central Park of the City of Davis in northern California, appeared to have been sawed off at the ankles and half its face was severed and missing, local news firm Davis Enterprise reported.

The vandalised statue of Mahatma Gandhi was found by a park employee in the early hours of the morning of January 27, the police said.

The statue is being removed and will be stored in a safe place until it can be evaluated, said Davis City councilman Lucas Frerichs.

Unfortunate and sad incident of ripping down #Gandhi statue in Davis city of #California, USA. Statue was installed in 2016.
Hope this new trend of targetting #MahatmaGandhi statues in US shall be firmly dealt by the authorities.@statedeptspox @State_SCA pic.twitter.com/e1e0rfthlW

— Pranay Upadhyaya (@JournoPranay) January 30, 2021

Investigators are still unsure of when exactly the statue was torn down or what the motive may have been, another local news firm Sacramento Bee reported.

Seeing as it’s a cultural icon to a portion of the people in Davis, we are taking it very seriously, Deputy Chief Paul Doroshov of the Davis Police Department was quoted as saying by the daily.

The statue of Mahatma Gandhi, which was donated by the Indian government to the city of Davis, was installed by the city council four years ago amidst protests from anti-Gandhi and anti-India organisations.

Organisation for Minorities in India (OFMI), which spearheaded these protests and opposed the installation of the statue. The City of Davis had however voted to go ahead with the installation. Since then OFMI had launched a campaign to remove the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

Indian-Americans have expressed deep anguish and shock at the incident.

This is not the first time a statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been desecrated. In December 2020, “Khalistani-supporters” had desecrated a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Washington, DC in front of the Indian Embassy.