Statues Vandalised: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's statue defaced in Jabalpur

In a shocking incident, which comes in the wake of a series of attempts to vandalise statues across the country, a statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s statue was defaced in Jabalpur. Red colour was splashed on Netaji’s statue and the administration has been alerted after the incident and the local police are making enquiries.

Earlier, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised in Kerala’s Kannur district on Thursday, while a bust of BR Ambedkar was defaced in Chennai the previous night, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned action against vandals. A statue of of Lord Hanuman was desecrated in Uttar Pradesh's Kharuav village, triggering tension in the area, police said on Thursday. The incident comes amid an ongoing spate of incidents targeting statues and busts of known figures across the country.  Station House Officer, Nagra, Ram Dinesh Tiwari, said the statue was damaged yesterday and a poster was also found pasted on it.

The police have lodged a case against unidentified persons on a complaint by Kharuav village chief Dushyant Singh, he said. The officer said that the matter is being investigated. No arrests have been made, Tiwari, said. The vandalization of the Hanuman statue comes after a series of incidents targeting statues and busts across the country. One person was arrested in Kannur where the glasses and the garland on the Mahatma’s statue were broken. In Chennai, Ambedkar’s bust was found splashed with red paint.

Modi’s view had also been echoed by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president Amit Shah, as the issue rocked both houses of Parliament. The Home Ministry told all states and UTs on Wednesday to ensure close monitoring and action to prevent such incidents and promptly investigate current cases, besides arresting and prosecuting the culprits. 

Jana Sangh founder and BJP icon Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s bust was blackened by an ultra-Left student outfit of Jadavpur University in Kolkata on Wednesday. 
Protests broke out in UP’s Meerut on Wednesday against the previous night’s attack on a statue of Ambedkar. 

Meanwhile, clashes broke out between BJP and TMC workers in Kolkata on Thursday over the desecration of Mookerjee’s bust.
Two statues of Communist icon Lenin had been brought down in Tripura on Monday, two days after the BJP wrested the Left bastion. Dravidian leader EV Ramasamy Periyar’s statue was vandalised in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

With inputs from PTI