Kolkata, Aug 30 (IANS) West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) on Sunday condemned the demolition of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s statue in West Burdwan district’s Durgapur and demanded it to be restored within 24 hours.
The district Congress leadership alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demolished the former Prime Minister’s statue and threw it into the forest.
They have warned the police that the statue must be replaced in its rightful place within 24 hours, otherwise the Congress will launch a big movement.
However, local BJP MLA Chandra Sekhar Banerjee is unwilling to accept this allegation of the Congress.
He claimed that a group of Congress is working with the Trinamool Congress and they are the ones who demolished the statue.
It was learnt that there is a meditation centre next to Harshvardhan Primary School in Durgapur where a huge statue of Jawaharlal Nehru stood in front of that centre.
The Congress alleged that space was needed for the Rakhi Bandhan ceremony on Friday so the statue was lifted with a crane and thrown into the forest next to the school.
The Congress expressed strong anger over the incident and asked “why is the country’s first Prime Minister being insulted like this”.
Congress District President Debesh Chakraborty said, “Jawaharlal Nehru’s statue was uprooted with a crane and thrown into the forest like this. A Rakhi Bandhan ceremony was held there. The MLA from Durgapur Purba was also present at that ceremony. We will not accept this insult to the former Prime Minister of the country. We are giving the police 24 hours. They have to take action within this time. Otherwise, we will launch a movement.”
Meanwhile, Durgapur Purba MLA Chandra Sekhar Banerjee said, “There are two groups in Congress. One group has secretly joined the Trinamool Congress and it is this Trinamool that has demolished the statue of Jawaharlal Nehru. Congress is trying to blame BJP by protesting. Remind Debesh Chakraborty that once, three or four union offices were demolished in front of the AVL office at the initiative of Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA). With my intervention, the statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi remained, no one broke it. The BJP is not behind the demolition of Nehru’s statue either. Look who did all this. We also want exemplary punishment for them.”
–IANS
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