Vidyasagar bust found uprooted in West Bengal days after Nehru statue vandalism

KOLKATA: A bust of social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was allegedly uprooted and dumped in a bush in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas district, on Saturday, days after a statue of Jawaharlal Nehru was found dismantled in Durgapur.

The bust, installed in 2020 inside a park named after Vidyasagar near the Baruipur Sub-Divisional Officer's office and the Baruipur Municipality building, was found lying in a nearby bush by morning walkers.

Locals alleged that unidentified miscreants uprooted the bust and demanded strict action against those responsible. They also sought the immediate reinstallation of the bust at its original location.

The incident comes six days after Congress leaders found a statue of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru lying in a forest patch in Durgapur.

Congress alleged that BJP-backed goons used a crane to remove the statue from a primary school in the Durgapur Steel Plant township to make space for a Raksha Bandhan programme attended by a local BJP MLA.

“Jawaharlal Nehru's statue was uprooted using a crane and thrown into a forest to make space for a Raksha Bandhan ceremony. The local BJP MLA was also present at the ceremony,” Paschim Bardhaman Congress president Debesh Chakraborty had alleged.

Congress gave police a 24-hour deadline to reinstall the statue, after which police restored it to its original location.

BJP MLA Chandrasekhar Banerjee denied the allegation, claiming the incident was the result of a rivalry between two Congress factions.

Following the change of government in West Bengal after the Assembly election results on May 4, several incidents of vandalism targeting statues and portraits of prominent personalities have been reported across the state.

On May 5, portraits of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Rabindranath Tagore were vandalised at Vidyasagar University in West Midnapore. The same night, a statue of Vladimir Lenin was allegedly vandalised in Murshidabad district.

On July 28, unidentified miscreants demolished the statue of Rahul Sankrityayan in Raniganj, Paschim Bardhaman. In August, a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was vandalised in Kolkata's New Alipore area by unidentified persons.