A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with graffiti and spray paint, PTI reported on Thursday, quoting local media reports. The miscreants have not yet been identified.
The statue, located on the Churchill-laan area of Amsterdam was reportedly smeared with red paint with the word “racist” along with an abbreviation for an expletive chalked on its pedestal, according to the Dutch newspaper Metro. The statue was unveiled on the Churchill-laan on October 2, 1990, in honour of Gandhi’s 121st birthday.
Amsterdam’s Deputy Mayor Rutger Groot Wassink said the municipality will file a declaration for daubing. “It is logical that we will file a declaration, the image will be cleaned,” Wassink said.
The incident was reported after a 75-year-old man in the area saw the graffiti on Wednesday and called the municipality. “I have lived here for forty years and I have never experienced this,” the unidentified man was quoted as saying. “I have been watching the statue for years.”
Over the past month, Gandhi’s statues in London and Washington DC have also been targeted for racism. These came amid the outrage following the murder of a black man, George Floyd, after he was pinned to the ground by a white police officer in the US. It has sparked debates around street names and statues of colonial leaders across the world.
Also read:
- Gandhi statues targeted for ‘racism’: What his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi had said on Gandhi’s views
- Video attacking Gandhi for his racist statements takes a simplistic view of a complex life
- Who’s afraid of Gandhi? Why there have been attempts to remove the Mahatma’s statues in Africa
- Gandhi’s racism: It’s time for the Mahatma to become a properly historical figure with all his flaws
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