Unknown assailants toppled a 10-feet-tall statue of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at Belapole in Assam’s Cachar district, drawing condemnation from the opposition Congress party, which questioned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)’s silence over the vandalism.
Congress leader Pradeep Kumar Dey said morning commuters noticed the vandalism on Tuesday. “We immediately reported the matter to the police. Officials initially claimed that the statue fell on its own, but CCTV footage showed that a group vandalized it with the help of an excavator,” he said on Wednesday.
Dey said the statue was installed in 2000 in front of Nehru College, which was established in 1965. He added that former Union minister late Santosh Mohan Dev and former Assam minister Dinesh Prasad Jwala were among those who attended the inauguration ceremony. “In 1953, a high school was established in the same area in the name of Nehru. We have a great culture of honoring the first prime minister here,” he said.
Congress submitted an initial media report on the incident. A case has been registered and the excavator used in the vandalism has been seized, local police officer Shankar Dayal said. “We have some digital evidence, and our teams are trying to identify the individuals involved. Once they are identified, the accused will be arrested.”
Abhijit Paul, former Congress district president, likened the vandalism to the destruction of statues of Bangladesh’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, after his daughter Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in August 2024. He stressed that Nehru was a freedom fighter and shaped India’s future. “Vandalizing his statue is shameful. Some people hate Nehru because of their political beliefs, but vandalizing his statue reminds me of how statues of the Father of Bangladesh were vandalized after the fall of Hasina. The idea behind both is the same.”
Paul questioned the BJP’s silence and called for more anger. “The area falls under BJP MP Kaushik Rai’s constituency. Rai is a minister but he did not speak a single word against him,” Paul said.
Rai did not respond to calls, while other BJP leaders refused to speak on the matter.
