LUCKNOW: The war over statues started with bulldozing of Lenin’s statue in Tripura reached Uttar Pradesh when some unidentified troublemakers vandalised the statue of Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar in Khurd village in Mawana area of Meerut district in the wee hours of Wednesday. However, district police sources claimed that the district administration had replaced the vandalised statue with a new one within hours.
As the news of desecration of statue spread like wildfire, people in large number took to streets and the blocked the traffic for hours demanding immediate action against the miscreants.
District police swung into action and rushed a team to the spot to avoid any untoward incident. However, sources said that it was not a “fall-out of any political vendetta” but related to local caste tension. However, no clashes were reported in the area after the incident.
Two days ago a finger of a BR Ambedkar statue was found broken in Aligarh, following which local residents had protested. Last year also there were reports of Ambedkar statue vandalism in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.
Notably, the incident came to light hours after the Home Ministry sent an advisory to all states and Union territories to take strong action against anyone involved in pulling down or desecration of statues.