[But the vandalism appeared to be aimed mostly at figures who are important to Dalits, whom some B.J.P. supporters disdain. Discrimination, although forbidden by law, is widespread in India’s stratified society.]
By Maria Abi-Habib and Hari Kumar
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Indian police detained a
member of the Revolutionary Students Youth Federation in Chennai
during a protest this past week against the
toppling of a statue of Lenin in Belonia.
Credit Arun Sankar/Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images
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MEERUT, India — The vandals attacked a statue
of Gandhi in the southern state of Kerala, breaking its wire-rimmed eyeglasses.
They targeted a monument to Lenin, using a
hydraulic jackhammer to destroy the sculpture in the northeastern state of
Tripura.
They shattered a statue of a revered figure
among Dalits, lower-caste Indians known as “the untouchables,” leaving it in
pieces in Meerut, about 50 miles north of New Delhi.
The attacks were part of a wave of vandalism
that has unleashed accusations and recriminations and sent political tensions
boiling over as one by one, at least six monuments have been vandalized since
Monday.
Indian opposition parties blame the attacks
on supporters of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, emboldened after a
landslide victory in state elections in the country’s northeast last weekend.
The opposition parties say the backers of
B.J.P. and its allies foster a climate of intolerance and target other Hindus
that oppose them, as well as religious minorities such as Muslims.
But the B.J.P., which says the party is
inclusive, denied its supporters were behind the attacks and dismissed the accusations
as part of a political smear campaign. It noted that someone had taken a hammer
to a bust of the founder of the governing the party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who heads the
B.J.P.-led government, issued a strong condemnation on Wednesday of the
vandalism, promising swift retribution against the vandals, no matter their
affiliation.
But the vandalism appeared to be aimed mostly
at figures who are important to Dalits, whom some B.J.P. supporters disdain.
Discrimination, although forbidden by law, is widespread in India’s stratified
society.
On Wednesday morning, district officials in
Meerut discovered a statue of B.R. Ambedkar in pieces. The Dalits revere Mr.
Ambedkar for enshrining their rights in the Indian Constitution.
Officials, hoping to avert anger from the
local Dalit community, moved within hours to replace the statue, erecting a new
one so hastily that most of the fingernails chiseled into the hand clutching
India’s Constitution were missing. The ears were rendered as blocklike ovals on
either side of the head.
The violence began in the town of Belonia in
Tripura state, after the B.J.P. swept local elections, ending more than two
decades of Communist control. The Tripura branch of the Communist Party of
India says B.J.P. supporters had celebrated their victory by ransacking and
burning the party’s offices.
Then, on Monday, a crowd chanting B.J.P.
slogans surrounded a statue of Lenin in Belonia, in the state of Tripura. Using
a construction vehicle with a hydraulic jackhammer they destroyed the monument
— an episode captured on a cellphone camera and shared widely.
“Victory to mother India,” protesters can be
heard chanting on the video.
Victor Shome, the media officer for B.J.P. in
Tripura, said the Communists had destroyed the statue. “We are a responsible
party,” Mr. Shome said on Friday. “With the help of the local administration,
we are looking seriously into this incident to see how it happened.”
The Communists claim otherwise. “The statue’s
destruction was symbolic of the victory of the right over the left,” said Tapas
Datta, the secretary for the local Communist Party branch in Belonia.
Belonia’s police say B.J.P. celebrations got
out of hand, but did not explicitly blame the party.
“It seemed some criminal elements took over a
bulldozer, parked on the side of the street,” said Manchak Ipper, the
superintendent of the police in the south Tripura district, which includes
Belonia.
“They forced the driver to bring down the
statue,” Mr. Ipper said by telephone. “I would say it was overenthusiasm.”
But the vandalism spread across India.
On Wednesday, residents of Kolkata found the
damaged bust of the B.J.P. founder, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, a hammer taken to
the eyes, and the face blackened with paint.
On Thursday, the glasses on the giant statue
of Gandhi in Kerala were broken. Mr. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by a
member of the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was outlawed after
the assassination for a period but is active today and allied with the B.J.P.
In Meerut on Friday, meanwhile, the Dalits
were seething, blaming upper-caste Tyagis for defacing Mr. Ambedkar’s statue.
The Tyagis are jealous and angry, they say, about their caste’s progression.
Mr. Ambedkar was a founding father of postcolonial India and helped elevate
Dalits socially, economically and politically, moving the community away from
their more commonly-known moniker, “the untouchables.”
Dalit groups in Meerut are promising to
replace the statue with an even bigger one, double the height of the current
rendering.
“He’s like our god,” said Kapil Kumar, 25,
who helped replace the statue in Meerut. “What we have today is because of him.
Whatever respect and chances in life we have, is because of him.”
Several villagers from the Tyagis caste have
accused the Dalits of destroying the statue themselves in order to rally their
voters in coming by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, which includes Meerut. Mr.
Kumar expects the tensions to worsen.
“In the future, this won’t calm down.
Tensions will go up. The Tyagis try to suppress us. They don’t like our
progress. They don’t like our politics,” Mr. Kumar said. “To the Tyagis, we are
all still ‘untouchables.’ ”
The opposition parties, meanwhile, said proof
of B.J.P.’s culpability lay in the calls on Tuesday from the party’s leader, H.
Raja, for supporters to destroy a statue of an activist admired by lower
castes, Periyar Ramasamy, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Hours later, the statue was defaced.
Mr. Raja said the call to action — published
on his Facebook page — was an administrator’s error, and the post has been
deleted.
Suhasini Raj contributed reporting from New
Delhi.