Another Ambedkar statue vandalised in Uttar Pradesh

A day before the 127th birth anniversary of Dalit icon Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, another of his statue's was vandalised in Gajna village in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Friday.

Officials said the two-feet statue of the Dalit leader was taken off the pedestal on which it had been installed. As a result, his legs came off while the shoes of the statue remained stuck to the brick-concrete pedestal.

The police said they were looking for the miscreants behind the act.

Over half-a-dozen incidents of Ambedkar's statues being vandalised have taken place in various parts of the state over the last one month.

Only a day ago, the police had sounded an alert across Uttar Pradesh for possible attempts to damage the statues of the Dalit stalwart and the chief architect of India's constitution ahead of his birth anniversary on April 14.

Ambedkar's statues were vandalised in Meerut, Budayun, Saharanpur, Firozabad and Bulandshahr in March, triggering angry protests from the opposition Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.

--IANS

md/nir/bg