Indian-Americans condemn vandalism of Gandhi statue in New York

Washington, February 8

Indian-American community leaders on Monday condemned the vandalism of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in New York and said this is disrespect to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, two leaders who sought to eradicate hate.

A life-sized bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised in a New York City neighbourhood on Saturday, an act strongly condemned as ‘despicable’ by the Consulate General of India.

The eight-foot-high statue, located in Manhattan’s Union Square, was defaced by unknown persons, the consulate in New York had said.

“As an African-American practitioner of the Hindu dharma, I am deeply offended that anyone would disrespect Mahatma Gandhi, who inspired MLK (Martin Luther King) to take up the mission of non-violence, which inspired major changes in society that are still positively impacting our lives today,” said Balabhadra Bhattacarya Dasa (Benny Tillman), president of the Vedic Friends Association.

Utsav Chakrabarti, executive director of the HinduPACT said that this is not the first time that a statue of Gandhi had been vandalised in the US.

“In the past few years, statues of Mahatma Gandhi have been vandalised by groups aligned with radical Islamists and their sympathisers in South Asian communities,” he claimed.