Cuddalore town in Tamil Nadu woke up to the sight of a desecrated bronze statue of Dr BR Ambedkar on Friday morning. This town, which is named after the district, is also the district headquarters of Cuddalore.
The statue, which is on Bharathi Road in Cuddalore was covered with a garland of footwear by the miscreants, who are being suspected of carrying out the incident on Thursday night. A poster was tied around the bronze statue with derogatory comments and was sticking to the face of the statue.
This desecration of the statue did lead to tension among the masses in Cuddalore. The miscreants had put footwear on the bronze statue and a poster with derogatory comments had been tied to the statue on May Day.
Local police said that netizens spotted the statue on Friday morning and informed the police. The footwear and the poster were removed from the statue immediately.
Incident caught on camera
The news was grave enough to get political workers of regional party Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) spring into action and rush to the spot. They immediately reached Bharathi Road upon hearing the news and removed the poster as well as the garland of footwear. The worker who cleaned the statue said, "This incident took place in the wee hours of Friday morning. We completely condemn what happened here." A brief protest was also held by VCK cadres in the wake of the incident.
He further added that Dr Amedkar's statue is situated at a major junction in the town. This is the place where many police officials have been standing guard in order to ensure the national lockdown due to coronavirus since many days now. An incident like this at this point does raise some serious concerns.
The volunteer also stated that investigation in the matter should be done immediately and strict action should be taken against the miscreants.
According to a senior police officer, the police was investigating CCTV footage of shops and business establishments around the statue. The miscreants will be arrested soon, he said.
