- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
AUSTRALIAN prime minister Scott Morrison has slammed the vandalism of a life-size bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi, which was gifted by the Indian government, just hours after it was unveiled in Melbourne, calling it “disgraceful”.
The incident happened hours after Morrison himself unveiled the state at the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville on Friday (12) along with consul general of India Raj Kumar and other Australian leaders as part of a celebration of the 75th year of India’s independence, The Age newspaper reported.
“It is disgraceful and extremely disappointing to see this level of disrespect,” Morrison was quoted as saying in the report on Sunday (14).
He said attacks on cultural monuments would not be tolerated in a country which is the most successful multicultural and immigration nation in the world.
“Whoever is responsible for this has shown great disrespect to the Australian Indian community and should be ashamed,” he said.
Victoria police said an unknown number of offenders used a power tool to decapitate the Mahatma’s statue sometime between 5.30pm local time on Friday and 5.30pm local time on Saturday (13), according to ABC News.
The police said detectives from the Knox Crime Investigation Unit were investigating the matter and appealed for witnesses to come forward.
The Indian community in the city also expressed its shock over the incident, calling it a “low act”.
“The community is very shocked and sad. I don’t (understand) why anyone would do such a low act of vandalism,” Surya Prakash Soni, president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, was quoted as saying by ABC News.
He said the Rowville centre was the first Indian community centre in the state of Victoria and had been established after 30 years of effort.
Australia India Community Charitable Trust chair Vasan Srinivasan said that someone tried to vandalise the statue within 24 hours of its unveiling left him sad.
“They were trying to cut the head off by grinding around it,” he was quoted as saying by Australia’s SBS News.
He said that there are almost 300,000 Indians living in the state of Victoria and “I never expected this thing could happen in Victoria”.
Srinivasan added that the police could not get any fingerprint since it was raining heavily throughout the day when the act took place.
