On January 28, two days before the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s killing, a statue that was gifted to the city of Davis, California, by the Government of India in 2016, was vandalised. The statue was sawed off at the ankles with half of its face removed, local daily Davis Enterprise reported.
The motive of the miscreants remains unknown.
The 6-foot-tall, 950-pound bronze “Gandhi statue of Peace” had sparked protests when it was first installed in 2016 on the UN International Day of Non-Violence, the Miami Herald reported. The Organisation for Minorities in India (OFMI) 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 Gandhi statue.
The statue was found after a night when wind and heavy rainfall knocked out power in much of downtown Davis, Davis Enterprise reported. “City staff discovered vandalism to the statue of Gandhi in Central Park this morning while surveying storm damage,” Davis City Councilman Lucas Frerichs wrote Wednesday night in a Facebook comment. “The statue is being removed and will be stored in a safe place until it can be evaluated.”
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has strongly condemned the incident, while the US State Department has also called it unacceptable and expressed hope that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
“The Government of India strongly condemns this malicious and despicable act against a universally respected icon of peace and justice,” the MEA said in a release.
“The Embassy of India in Washington D.C. has taken up the matter with the U.S. Department of State for a thorough investigation into the incident and appropriate action against those responsible for this despicable act. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco has separately taken up the matter with the City of Davis and local law enforcement authorities, which have initiated the investigations. The Mayor of Davis deeply regretted the incident and informed that they have initiated an investigation. Local Indian community organisations have condemned the act of vandalism.”
“The US Department of State has conveyed that this act of vandalism is unacceptable and expressed the hope that perpetrators will be brought to justice as quickly as possible,” it said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also condemned the desecration, in his address to the All-Party Meeting on the Budget Session of Parliament, saying that such an atmosphere of hate is not welcome for our planet.
OFMI published a post about the statue’s desecration, claiming that Gandhi was on the decline across the world and that it would be “in India’s interest to reboot its foreign policy of gifting Gandhi to the world.” “The more they force Gandhi onto the world, the more the citizens of the world will continue to reject his statues through legal and vigilante means,” OFMI said.
The Hindu-American Foundation has called the incident a “hate crime” aimed at intimidating India and Indian Americans.
HAF California Advocacy Director Easan Katir said, “We condemn this cowardly desecration and call upon the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to investigate this hate crime, as it was likely done with the intention of intimidating the Indian American community. We urge local police to apprehend the perpetrators and call upon the city council to resurrect the statue as a statement that such destructive acts are not in harmony with our community standards.”
In December, a statue of Gandhi in Washington had also been vandalised by a group identified as Khalistani separatists. That incidents was condemned by the White House, with former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany calling the incident appalling. “It’s terrible. No statue or memorial should be desecrated and certainly not one like that of Gandhi who really fought for the values that America represents of peace, justice, and freedom.”
Statues of Gandhi have become a polarising topic in countries outside of India. During the Black Lives Matter protests in June last year, a Gandhi statue was vandalised in Washington—days later, another statue, this in London, was also targeted by BLM activists, who spray-painted “racist” onto the statue’s foundation.
The US Ambassador to India, Donald L. Heflin, was among those who marked the occasion on Martyr’s Day.
“As we mark the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I think of how his influence reached beyond India and inspired the entire world, including the United States, as we all continue to strive to be the change we wish to see in the world. #MartysDay,” he tweeted.