Statues of great personalities are cleaned and well taken care of on any special occasions or festivities in India. However, in Suhag Nagri, Firozabad, statues of Swami Vivekananda and Padam Bhushan Dada Banarsi Das Chaturvedi were covered by the government on the day of Eid-Ul-Adah.
Despite the government assuring public that nothing new will be incorporated on this day, both the statues were covered and literally caged within a white cloth. Today these proud statues which have stood for years at the Main Gandhi crossroad sent waves of shock to the local public but no one dared to question this decision.
When some volunteers approached BJP MLA Manish Asiza and informed him of this predicament, he took the complaint to DM Vijay Kiran Anand and SP Piyush Srivastava and filed an objection. To rid themselves of this case, both the officials washed their hands clean by stating no orders were given from their jurisdiction and they have no clue who would have undertaken such a task.
It is noteworthy to mention that the Gandhi Park crossroad is near a mosque and the line up of Muslim worshipers on Eid is so long that it reaches this crossroad. The DM insists no orders were given to cover up the statues and it may be the work of a municipal worker instead and that he will certainly look into the matter.
This is not the first time these statues have been covered. They were also covered about seven years ago on Eid by the municipality but the cloth was removed when photographer Varishtha Premnarayan Dube protested against it.
The statues have never been hidden ever since but the government has taken steps to hide them once again.
