Condemble Vandalism

It is perfectly acceptable for people to oppose what the government of the day wishes to do if the proposed action is seen as going against the will of the people. But just because some  people of a city do not endorse the government’s decision to put up the statue of a former world renowned educationist of Italy they have no right to engage in vandalism. The State government is also much to blame for not seeking the people’s opinion in advance and taking their approval of its actions for granted. Generally, the decision of the State’s Chief Minister is regarded by the State’s bureaucrats as constituting the will of the people. Last week, the Chief Minister of Assam wanted to set up a statue of John Bosco (Don Bosco) near Dighalipukhuri. When people opposed this very strongly, he decided to put up the statue at a point in Bhorolumukh where the Bhorolu meets the Brahmaputra. And since he was adamant about getting this statue installed, he ordered this to be done in two days on a war footing with the police being deployed in large numbers to tackle any further activism by the people. The site was guarded day and night to foil any ‘untoward’ action. However a group of vandals sneaked into the area in the wee hours of Friday morning and pushed the statue down into the river. Not content with this, they even defaced it. Such vandalism needs to be condemned outright and the culprits brought to book. People could have cordoned the area and collectively prevented the installation of the statue if the opposition to its being erected anywhere in the city was all that strong. But no one had the right to topple the statue and deface it. And one can very well ask why having a statue of the world famous educationist in the city was so objectioble when we have permitted a school and a university med after him to come up in the city.