The Indian community has already proven its existence in almost all parts of the world. Slowly and steadily the foreign governments are recognizing the value of the Indian workforce in their country. For serving this purpose various Indian heritage centres are constructed in almost every country for recognizing and promoting Indian culture. While some group of people constantly vandalize the properties of such places, one such incident happened in Australia where the Australian Indian Community Centre was celebrating 75 years of India’s Independence and a live statue of Mahatma Gandhi which was gifted to them was vandalized.
Attempts To Behead The Gandhi Statue
This incident occurred a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled the statue at the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville on Friday along with the Consul General of India Raj Kumar and other leaders of Australia. Condemning the act, Morrison told a news agency that he was devastated to hear about the vandalism, adding that attacks on cultural monuments will not be tolerated.
“It is disgraceful and extremely disappointing to see this level of disrespect. Whoever is responsible for this has shown great disrespect to the Australian-Indian community and should be ashamed,” Morrison added. Australia India Community Charitable Trust chair Vasan Srinivasan said the offenders were trying to cut off the head of the statute by grinding around it. With nearly 300,000 Indians living in Victoria, Srinivasan said it was never expected that such an act could take place.
A Prestigious Indian Organisation In Australia
The Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville is the first such centre of the Indian community in Victoria and was established after three decades of effort, Surya Prakash Soni, president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, said.
The Victoria Police said that an unknown number of offenders used a tool to decapitate the statue between last Friday and Saturday, the report said, adding the Knox Crime Investigation Unit detectives are probing the matter and have urged witnesses to come forward with any details. Well, this act is absolutely disgraceful and the culprit must be brought in front of the law.
Source : The freepress Journal
