Modi statue found damaged in UP village

Residents of a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi district are planning to file a police complaint after an idol of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the local Shiva temple was found damaged on Thursday.

The nose of the statue was found broken, but the cause of the damage couldn’t be known, said a resident of Bhagwanpur Bahugara village, who didn’t reveal his identity.

The villagers led by local BJP leader Brajendra Narayan Mishra, who got the statue installed in the temple before the 2014 parliamentary elections, said they plan to file a police complaint on Friday.

According to the leader’s son, Alok Mishra, the villagers prayed every day in the temple before the elections, requesting god to make Modi the prime minister.

The prayer sessions stopped after Modi’s victory, although a handful of villagers still visit the temple, he said.

The villagers are upset and suspect foul play after discovering the damage, more so because it happened at a time the country is witnessing a spate of vandal attacks on statues — Vladimir Lenin in Tripura, SP Mookerjee in West Bengal, BR Ambedkar in UP and Periyar in Tamil Nadu.

The station house officer of Sarai Akil police station, Uma Shankar Yadav, said he is not aware of the damage to the Modi statue.