Gandhi statue vandalised in New York

New York: A life-sized bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi, located in Union Square near Manhattan, was vandalised, an act strongly condemned as ‘despicable' by the Consulate General of India, triggering shock and disappointment among the Indian-American community.
The satue was defaced by some unknown persons, the Consulate General of India in New York said. “The Consulate condemns this act in the strongest terms,” it said, adding that the matter has been taken up with authorities.
“The matter has also been taken up with the US state department for immediate investigation and we urged appropriate action against those responsible for this despicable act,” it said. The 8-foot-high statue was donated by the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, and was dedicated on October 2, 1986 to mark the 117th birth anniversary of Gandhi.
Incidentally, the statue was removed in 2001, conserved and reinstalled in a landscape garden area in 2002. Last month, unknown miscreants had similarly vandalised, broken and ripped from the base another statue of Gandhi in a park in California.