A VANDALISED plinth of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in London was restored in time for the birth anniversary of the Indian freedom icon on Thursday (2).
India’s High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami and the mayor of Camden Council were joined at Tavistock Square by community leaders s tributes were paid on Gandhi’s birthday, which is marked as the International Day of Non-Violence.
“It’s particularly timely that we have this event today, not just because it is International Day of Non-Violence, which is Gandhi Jayanti, but also because of what was done to the statue and its base a few days ago,” Doraiswami said.
“That was particularly saddening because this statue has been here for over 50 years in this square and it’s been part of the architecture and fabric of the India-UK friendship," he added.
“It’s the community around Tavistock Square who reported this act of vandalism and it’s all of us, the High Commission and the Camden Council team, who managed to have it cleaned to a brilliant gleaming white again; which is in a sense a lovely message.
“It carries the message of swachhta or cleanliness, it carries the message of renewal, but it also carries the message that you cannot do violence to an idea whose time has come.”
Earlier this week, the statue was daubed with graffiti which the Metropolitan Police is investigating as a "racially aggravated" crime.
Camden mayor, councillor Eddie Hanson, said he and his team had been very upset when they heard about the “very, very sad incident".
“This statue means everything to us here in Camden when it comes to peace. That's why he's here with us, because we believe in his message, we believe in his teaching, we believe in what Gandhiji stood for,” said Hanson.
The annual gathering concluded with the students of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London performing Gandhiji’s favourite bhajans, ‘Raghupati Raghav’ and ‘Vaishnava Jan’, and a peace prayer by Buddhist monks.
The group also laid floral tributes at the Gandhi statue at Parliament Square to mark his 156th birth anniversary.
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