A life-sized statue of Mahatma Gandhi, talented via way of means of the Indian government, changed into vandalised in Australia’s Melbourne final Saturday, reviews have stated.
According to a file via way of means of SBS News, the incident befell an afternoon after Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled the statue on the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville on Friday along side the Consul General of India Raj Kumar and different leaders of Australia.
Condemning the act, Morrison advised SBS News that he changed into devastated to pay attention approximately the vandalism, including that assaults on cultural monuments will now no longer be tolerated.
“It is disgraceful and extraordinarily disappointing to peer this degree of disrespect. Whoever is accountable for this has proven exquisite disrespect to the Australian-Indian network and need to be ashamed,” Morrison added.
Meanwhile, Australia India Community Charitable Trust chair Vasan Srinivasan stated the offenders have been seeking to reduce off the top of the statute via way of means of grinding round it. With almost 300,000 Indians dwelling in Victoria, Srinivasan stated it changed into in no way anticipated that such an act should take place.
The Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville is the primary such centre of the Indian network in Victoria and changed into installed after 3 many years of effort, Surya Prakash Soni, president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, stated, consistent with a file via way of means of the ABC.
The Victoria Police stated that an unknown range of offenders used a device to decapitate the statue among final Friday and Saturday, the ABC file stated, including the Knox Crime Investigation Unit detectives are probing the problem and feature advised witnesses to return back ahead with any details.
In January this year, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi changed into vandalised withinside the United States withinside the Central Park of the City of Davis in Northern California.