Gandhi's statue vandalised in US, Indian embassy registers complaint
Washington: Unknown miscreants have vandalised a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Indian embassy in the US with graffiti and spray painting, prompting the mission officials to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies.
The incident is reported to have taken place on the intervening night of June 2 and 3 in Washington DC.
The Indian embassy has informed the State Department and registered a complaint with local law enforcement agencies, which are now conducting an investigation into the incident.
On Wednesday, a team of officials from Metropolitan Police in consultation with the Diplomatic Security Service and National Park Police visited the site and are conducting inquiries.
Efforts are on to clean up the site at the earliest.
Vandalism of the statue of the apostle of peace comes during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
Several of these protests have turned violent which many times has resulted in damage of some of the most prestigious and sacred American monuments.
In Washington DC, protestors this week burnt a historic church and damaged some of the prime properties and historic places like the national monument and Lincoln Memorial.
One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000 during his state visit to the US.
In October 1998, the US Congress had authorised the government of India to establish and maintain a memorial to honour Mahatma Gandhi on Federal land in the District of Columbia."
According to the Indian Embassy website, the sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi is cast in bronze as a statue to a height of 8 feet 8 inches. It shows Gandhi in stride, as a leader and man of action evoking memories of his 1930 protest march against salt-tax, and the many padyatras (long marches) he undertook throughout the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent.
The statue, the design of which was created by Gautam Pal, is a gift from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The pedestal for the statue of Mahatma Gandhi is a block of new Imperial Red also known as Ruby Red a block originally weighing 25 tonnes reduced to a size of 9'x7'x3'4". It now weighs 16 tonnes.
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BJP issues show cause notice to MP Jayant Sinha for absence from voting and election campaign
Ranchi (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday slapped a show cause notice on former Union Minister Jayant Sinha for not taking part in campaigning after Manish Jaiswal was declared candidate from the Hazaribag Lok Sabha seat and thereby "maligning" the party's image.
Sinha, son of former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, is the sitting MP of Hazaribagh.
"You are not taking any interest in organisational work and election campaigning ever since the party declared Manish Jaiswal as the candidate from Hazaribag LS seat. You did not even feel proper to exercise your right of franchise. The party's image has been maligned due to your conduct," BJP state general secretary Aditya Sahu said in the notice.
Sinha was conspicuous by his absence during polling in Hazaribag constituency on Monday.
The party has sought an explanation from Jayant Sinha within two days, following instructions from state BJP president and former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi.
Asked about future course of action, Sahu told PTI that it would depend on Sinha's response.
Sinha did not respond to calls and messages in this regard.
Hours before the announcement that Jaiswal would be the candidate for Hazaribagh, Sinha had requested party leadership to relieve him from electoral politics.
In a post on X on March 2, the MP said he would continue to work with the party on economic and governance issues and wanted to focus his efforts on "combating global climate change in Bharat and around the world".
"I have had the privilege of serving the people of Bharat and Hazaribagh for the past ten years. Moreover, I have been blessed by the many opportunities provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP leadership. My sincerest gratitude to all of them. Jai Hind!" he had said in that post.
Hazaribag, a high-profile urban constituency in Jharkhand, was once represented by Yashwant Sinha and later his son, Jayant Sinha.
Sinha won the seat by a margin of 4.79 lakh votes, defeating Congress's Gopal Sahu in 2019.
Notably, Jaiswal had earlier contested from the Mandu assembly seat on a JVM ticket.
