Literary figure’s bust vandalised in Bengal
NO RESPITE A statue of 19th century poetplaywright Madhusudan Dutt smeared with red ink as vandalism continues to spread in state
Unidentified persons defaced a statue of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, a prominent poetplaywright of Bengal, on Friday night in Bengal’s Raniganj town an incident that confirmed that the virus of vandalism is now engulfing persons not related to partisan politics.
Red ink was smeared on the statue of Dutt in Raniganj. The incident took place on Friday night in West Burdwan district about 200 km from Kolkata and was noticed on Saturday.
The civic body authorities quickly cleaned the statue.
Dutt (1824-1873) is regarded as one of the key personalities of modern Bengali literature who was also one of the earliest Indians to try his hand in writing poetry in English. Besides, he was a polyglot having studied Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
Dutt converted to Christianity in his youth.
“We are trying to find out the identity of the culprits. We have told the police to take strong steps, “said Jiten Tewari, the mayor of Asansol Municipal Corporation. “It is a matter of great shame that the statue of the poet was defaced.”
Local BJP leaders, too, condemned the act.
MIDNAPORE:
The string of vandalism involving some of the country’s leaders and icons started with the demolition of two statues of the leader of Russian revolution, Vladimir Lenin, in Tripura on March 6 and 7 following the victory of the BJP.
As a mark of protest, a group of students vandalised Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s bust in Kolkata on March 7.
A statue of social reformer EV Ramaswamy’s (popular as Periyar) was attacked in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupattur on the night of March 6 and that of BR Ambedkar was defaced in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on the same night. M K Gandhi’s statue was vandalised on March 8 in Kannur, Kerala and Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue being defaced on March 9 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
West Bengal CM condemned the demolition of Lenin’s statue and the vandalism of prominent Indian leaders. Kolkata Police arrested seven students who damaged Mookerjee’s statue.
In Kolkata, BJP leaders got into a scuffle with ruling Trinamool Congress supporters on March 8, when they were prevented from going near Mookerjee’s statue that the saffron supporters wanted to purify with milk and Ganges water.
On March 9, BJP workers carried out a ‘purification’ programme on a few statues of Mookerjee with milk.