Mahatma Gandhi statue vandalised in US
Washington: Unknown miscreants 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 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 Davis Enterprise daily reported.
The vandalised statue of Mahatma Gandhi was found by a park employee in the early hours of 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.
Investigators are still unsure of when exactly the statue was torn down or what the motive may have been, The 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 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 Gandhi statue.
Indian-Americans have expressed deep anguish and shock at the incident.
An atmosphere of hatred was being created by many anti-India and hinduphobic radical organisations like OFMI and other Khalistani separatists for many years now, said Guarang Desai of Friends of India Society International (FISI).
They have not only run 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, the OFMI was part of a campaign to remove the mentions of 'India' from the sixth and seventh grade California school textbooks and replace them with South Asia'. After massive protests from parents and students, the California Department of Education had dropped the controversial changes.
Appalled at the desecration, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigate the incident as a hate crime.
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, said HAF California Advocacy Director Easan Katir, a former member of the Davis Business and Finance Commission.
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, Katir said.
Make no mistake HAF said in a tweet this is not about legacy of Gandhi as a person, but about intimating 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 Stated 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 Mahatma Gandhi statue in Washington, DC in front of the Indian Embassy.
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Unemployed class 10 passouts in Bengal to get Rs 1,500 allowance from March 7: Mamata
Kolkata (PTI): Ahead of the assembly polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that from Saturday unemployed young job seekers, having passed secondary examination (class 10), will receive Rs 1,500 allowance every month to help them move towards a self-reliant future.
The TMC supremo made this announcement - on the eve of International Women’s Day on March 8 - during her speech at the sit-in against large-scale deletion of names of voters by the Election Commission during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll exercise.
She said young men and women - aged 21–40 years - who have passed the secondary exams - will receive Rs 1,500 per month from March 7. Bannerjee said while the assistance was originally scheduled to begin in April, it will now start immediately.
"In the case of Yuva Sathi, all those who are still studying and are not beneficiaries of any schemes other than scholarships will receive the amount. We had earlier stated that the money would be given on April 1. But since tomorrow is International Women's Day, as a gift, we have changed the payment date from April 1 to today (March 7)," she said.
All those aged between 21 and 40 years, numbering around 1 crore people, have applied for this scheme, she said, pointing out these are people who are not beneficiaries of any other schemes except scholarships.
Claiming that her government has generated employment opportunities to a great extent, Banerjee said, "The unemployment rate in Bengal has decreased by 40 per cent. We have provided skill training to at least 40 lakh people, out of which around 10 lakh are already employed.
"This has also happened because we have linked the websites of industrialists with those who have received skill training through Utkarsha Bangla. If migrant workers are interested, they will also be given opportunities. Recently, I heard that around 10,000 people are being trained in the jute industry, and they will also be absorbed into jobs," she said.
The CM said the state is giving Rs 10,000 to farmers every month.
"Even those with just one cottah of land used to receive Rs 4,000 earlier. Now we have also announced Rs 4,000 for landless farmers," she said.
Banerjee said in Bengal, six economic corridors are being constructed to connect the entire state.
"Apart from that, two power plants of 1,600 megawatts (800 megawatts each) are being built in Salboni. We are also number one in IT. More people are employed here than in Bengaluru. Around 200 new companies have also come here.
"Those who defame the state should know that we are number one in small and medium-scale industries. Around 1.5 crore people work in small-scale industries. Units from across the country have come here. In Bengal's leather hub in Bantala, at least 7.5 lakh people work there. Our self-help group women are doing really well. We have created around 12 lakh self-help groups," she said.
Banerjee said around one lakh people will be employed in the large coal reserve in Deucha Pachami in Birbhum district and for the next 100 years, there will be no power cuts in the state.
Bengal's GSDP is the highest even after "repaying Rs 6 lakh crore of debt and paying interest on it and despite Rs 2 lakh crore of central funds still pending," the CM said.
"From GSDP to revenue generation, we are the highest," she claimed.
