On the day when the nation celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a copper urn containing ashes of Mahatma Gandhi was allegedly stolen from Bapu Bhawan in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh. The miscreants also defaced the Gandhi poster in the museum and wrote ‘Rashtradrohi’ (traitor) with green paint, reports News18.com.
The mortal remains and the poster were at the Bapu Bhawan located in Laxman Bagh. The Bhawan was constructed in 1948 and has been preserved by the Laxman Bagh Trust reports The Wire.
The incident came to light when Congress worker Ram Krishn and other party leaders reached the Bhawan to pay tributes. They informed the police and complaint has been registered. Rewa superintendent of police Abid Khan said an FIR has been filed against unidentified men under Section 53-B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code at the Bichhiya police station.
Many took to social media to condemn the attack.
The thieves also scrawled “traitor” in green paint. What a shame.https://t.co/kVBMNcf0M8
— Vidya (@VidyaKrishnan) October 4, 2019
The anti nationals pay back Bapu by stealing his mortal remains and by defacing his photo.
Why does Gandhi still scare them so much?
Gandhi’s ashes stolen and photo defaced on 150th birthday https://t.co/opyMXj7JUs
— Lavanya Ballal | ಲಾವಣ್ಯ ಬಲ್ಲಾಳ್ (@LavanyaBallal) October 3, 2019
Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest icon of non-violence in the world. Nothing can ever tarnish his memory, but sickening acts like this show the moral depravity of those who follow the ideology of Godse! Is this what we have come to as a society? Shameful!https://t.co/OKrWHeFVbM
— Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) October 4, 2019
Other Cases of Vandalism
Several cases of vandalising statues of leaders were reported recently across the country. Last month a Gandhi statue installed at the Sri Gandhi Inter College in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun was found decapitated.
Image Courtesy: ANI
A statue of BR Ambedkar was also vandalised last month in UP’s Saharanpur district triggering protests from the villagers. Women wielding sticks led a massive protest and blocked the roads in Behat area of Saharanpur, reported The Times Of India.
Earlier this year in May, Kolkata social reformer Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s statue was vandalised. Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Centre of Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, Ch Satish Kumar had then said that it is not “just an act of impulse”.
“When you demolish a statue you try to uproot the whole ideology. A systematic attack is in play to uproot and push aside particular ideologies and sections of people in this country — mostly marginalised sections of the society,” he had told New Indian Express.
