DEAL Sternly With Those Trying To Create law & Order Problem By Defacing Statutes of Prominent Personalities, Says Rajnath Singh: BJP Condemns Such Heinous Incidents

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed strong disapproval after the vandalism of statues in Tripura and Tamil Nadu and spoken to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh .Rajnath Singh has ordered states to take strong action to check such incidents. A statue of Dravidian icon and social reformer EVR Ramaswamy, popularly known as Periyar, was vandalised in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore. The incident reportedly occurred after BJP leader H Raja suggested in his Facebook post responding to anger over a statue of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin being pulled down in Tripura. He deleted his comment but DMK and the Left are demanding his arrest. The bust of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, predecessor to BJP, was blackened and its features smashed with a hammer in Kolkata’s Keoratola crematorium. The location is not far from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s South Kolkata residence. A hand-written message placed under Dr Mukherjee’s bust roughly read: “…We have the strength to recreate, We know we can redesign because we have broken/ Since we have created dreams after dreams, we now are businessmen of dreams.”Seven persons were detained for vandalising the bust  by alleged members of a Leftist Students’ Union (radicals) of Jadavpur University. The bust has been broken partially with black colour painted on the face, say TV channels .Kolkata Police says on Twitter six male and one female aged between 22 and 29 who tried to deface the bust of Dr Mukherjee have been arrested from the spot and strong legal action initiated. No vandalism would be tolerated, KP added. BJP West Bengal condemned barbaric act of vandalising statue of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was also the youngest- ever- Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University from for four years from 1934, a barrister, and Union Minister for Industry and Supply. Sayantan Basu, General Secretary said “We demand very strong action against culprits.” West Bengal Minister and Kolkata Mayor Sovandeb Chattapadhyaya said “One incident of vandalism cannot be replied with another similar incident. We condemn both”. He was obviously referring to bulldozing of V I Lenin’s statute in Tripura after the Marxist Government was voted out. “We have arrested six people and we will repair Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s bust in Kalighat as well”, the Minister said. The incidents of defacing and dismantling of political icons are on the rise. A statue of Lenin was destroyed in South Tripura’s Belonia town with the help of a bulldozer after BJP along with its ally wrested power from the Marxists in Tripura .The same day, Dravidian movement founder Periyar’s statue was vandalized in Vellore in Tamil Nadu. According to reports, two men, who were allegedly drunk, damaged the glasses and the nose of the statue. Both men have been arrested. The Bharatiya Janata Party has condemned blackening of SP Mukherjee’s bust; “it is a barbaric act of vandalising statue…We demand very strong action against culprits.”  The party has announced that it will take out at rally and observe “law violation day” in Kolkata. The Bengal unit of the BJP has announced that it will take out at rally and observe “law violation day” in Kolkata.