Floral tributes, bhajans mark Gandhi Jayanti at restored London statue

London, Oct 2 (PTI) The plinth of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Tavistock Square in London, which was vandalised just days earlier, was restored to a gleaming white in time for the annual Gandhi Jayanti ceremony on Thursday.

Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said the coming together of the local community in the wake of the vandalism, reported to the Metropolitan Police on Sunday evening, symbolised a beautiful message in time for International Day of Non-Violence.

He was joined by members of the India League, which had supported the installation of the statue over 50 years ago, and the mayor of the local Camden Council, which cares for the monument.

“It’s particularly timely that we have this event today, not just because it is International Day of Non-Violence, which is Gandhi Jayanti, but also because of what was done to the statue and its base a few days ago,” Doraiswami told PTI.

“That was particularly saddening because this statue has been here for over 50 years in this Square and it’s been part of the architecture and fabric of the India-UK friendship," he said.

"It’s the community around Tavistock Square who reported this act of vandalism and it’s all of us, the High Commission and the Camden Council team, who managed to have it cleaned to a brilliant gleaming white again; which is in a sense a lovely message, it carries the message of swachhta or cleanliness, it carries the message of renewal, but it also carries the message that you cannot do violence to an idea whose time has come,” he said.

Alpesh Patel, President of India League, said the vandals served as a reminder why the message of Mahatma Gandhi and the values of peace and non-violence continue to be important.

“To those vandals, I say, thank you for reminding us. Our numbers will continue doubling. We have British values and Indian values, which are the values of the Mahatma,” Patel said in his address.

The mayor of Camden, Councillor Eddie Hanson, said he and his team had been very upset when they heard about the “very, very sad incident", which involved the base of the statue being daubed in hateful graffiti that the Met Police is investigating as a "racially aggravated" crime.

“This statue means everything to us here in Camden when it comes to peace. That's why he's here with us, because we believe in his message, we believe in his teaching, we believe in what Gandhiji stood for,” said Hanson.

The annual gathering concluded with the students of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London performing Gandhiji’s favourite bhajans, ‘Raghupati Raghav’ and ‘Vaishnava Jan’, and a peace prayer by Buddhist monks.

As is customary, the gathering then made its way to Westminster for floral tributes at the Gandhi statue at Parliament Square to complete commemorations of the 156th birth anniversary of the Father of the Indian Nation. PTI AK ZH ZH