Gandhi's statue at Parliament removed; opposition says 'atrocious'

New Delhi: The Union Government has relocated statues of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, and Chhatrapati Shivaji within the Parliament complex were relocated from their respective places. According to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the new location of the statues is the place where the opposition used to hold peaceful and democratic protests against the reigning government. Ramesh said that the new move only explains that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not want any protests near Parliament against him or his government, Scroll reported.

"Statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar have just been removed from their places of prominence in front of the Parliament House," Ramesh said in a post on X. "This is atrocious."

More opposition leaders condemned the shifting of the statues, calling it "arbitrary" and "atrocious".

Following the backlash, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a statement that the statues of the leaders were "respectfully installed in a grand Prerana Sthal (site of inspiration)" inside the Parliament Complex. This was part of the building of the new Parliament Building, the secretariat stated.

It further justified that visitors are unable to view some statues conveniently because of their location at different places. Therefore, a single area, Prerna Sthal, would house all the statues since it has been developed in a way that visitors "could easily see the statues of these great leaders and take inspiration from their lives and philosophy", ANI quoted the secretariate.

However, Jairam Ramesh's response wasn't satisfactory. He responded that it was a bogus explanation that one can get from a system run by a megalomaniac who has been decisively rejected by the people of the country.