A statue of Mahatma Gandhi in a park in the US state of California has been vandalized, smashed and torn from the base by unknown criminals, prompting a strong response from India seeking a full investigation and appropriate action against those responsible for the ” despicable act. “
The 6-foot-tall, 650-pound (294 kg) bronze statue of Gandhi, in Central Park in the northern California town of Davis, appeared to have been severed at the ankles and half of his face was severed and missing, local Davis Enterprise reported daily.
The shattered statue of Mahatma Gandhi was found by a park employee in the early hours of the morning on January 27, police said.
The statue will be removed and stored in a secure location until it can be evaluated, Davis City Councilman Lucas Frerichs said.
Investigators are not yet sure when exactly the statue was toppled or what the reason may have been, The Sacramento Bee reported.
“Since he is a cultural icon for some of the people in Davis, we are taking him very seriously,” the newspaper quoted Deputy Chief Paul Doroshov of the Davis Police Department as saying.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Foreign Ministry said the US State Department has conveyed that the act of vandalism is unacceptable and expressed the hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice as soon as possible.
“The Government of India strongly condemns this malicious and despicable act against a universally respected icon of peace and justice,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
He said the Indian embassy in Washington has discussed the matter with the US State Department for a thorough investigation of the incident and appropriate action against those responsible.
The MEA said the mayor of Davis deeply regretted the incident and informed them that they had launched an investigation.
“Organizations of the local indigenous community have condemned the act of vandalism,” the ministry said.
The Gandhi statue, which was donated by the Indian government to the city of Davis, was installed by the city council four years ago amid protests from anti-Gandhi and anti-India organizations.
Organization for Minorities in India (OFMI), which led these protests and opposed the installation of the statue. However, the City of Davis had voted to go ahead with the installation. Since then, OFMI has launched a campaign to remove the Gandhi statue.
Indian Americans have expressed deep anguish and shock over the incident.
“For many years, many radical anti-India and Hinduphobic organizations such as OFMI and other Khalistani separatists are creating an atmosphere of hatred,” said Guarang Desai of Friends of India Society International (FISI).
“They have not only carried out hate campaigns against Indian icons, but have been at the forefront of attempts to push Hinduphobia and erase India from California school textbooks,” Desai said.
In 2016, OFMI was part of a campaign to remove mentions of ‘India’ from California sixth and seventh grade school textbooks and replace them with ‘South Asia’. After massive protests from parents and students, the California Department of Education dropped the controversial changes.
Dismayed by the desecration, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigate the incident as a hate crime.
“We condemn this cowardly desecration and call on the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to investigate this hate crime, as it was likely done with the intent to intimidate the American Indian community,” said HAF California Defense Director Easan Katir , a former member of the Davis Business and Finance Commission.
“We urge the local police to arrest the perpetrators and ask the city council to resurrect the statue as a declaration that such destructive acts are not in harmony with the standards of our community,” Katir said.
“Make no mistake,” HAF said in a tweet, “this is not about Gandhi’s legacy as a person, but about intimidating India and Indian-Americans.”
The vandalism was praised on Twitter by a pro-Khalistan group in California, who shared photos of the destroyed statue and others who said “Today is a good day.”
This is not the first time a statue of Gandhi has been desecrated. In December 2020, Khalistani supporters had desecrated a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Washington, DC in front of the Indian embassy.
.
