New York: In a possible hate crime case, unidentified persons vandalized Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at a temple here with a hammer earlier this month. This was said in media reports on Friday.
According to ‘CBSnews.com’, a surveillance video shows a man smashing Gandhi’s statue with a hammer on Tuesday and breaking his head. A few minutes later, a group of six people takes turns knocking the statue down with a hammer. “It is very sad to see them (the attackers) follow us like this,” Lakhram Maharaj, the founder of the Shri Tulsi Temple in South Richmond Hill, was quoted as saying.
By the time Maharaj came to know about the incident on Wednesday morning, Gandhi’s statue had turned into rubble. ‘Dog’ was also written in front of the temple and some other places with spray paint. Investigating officials said that the same statue of Gandhi was vandalized two weeks ago. Assemblymember Jennifer Rajkumar said in the news, “The demolition of Gandhi’s statue is really against all our beliefs and it is a very disturbing act for the community.”
Reports said the New York Police Department is investigating both incidents as possible hate crimes. Maharaj said that many people from the community are now afraid to go to the temple. Maharaj was quoted in the news as saying, “I cannot express to the people who come to the temple that I am worried because if I raise my concern in front of them, how will they be strong?”
The news said that the temple authorities could not replace Gandhi’s statue with another one as it was handmade and cost around US$ 4,000. Maharaj said, “I just want to know why he did this?” This is not the first case of Gandhi’s statue being damaged or defaced in the US.
In February this year, an eight-foot-tall statue of Gandhi in Manhattan’s Union Square was vandalized by some people. Gandhi’s statue in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington was defaced by Khalistan supporters in December 2020.
