Gandhi statue at Hindu temple in New York vandalised; second attack in 15 days

A statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside a temple in Queens, New York was destroyed by miscreants in a second attack in 15 days.

Surveillance video outside the Shri Tulsi Mandir in South Richmond Hill showed a couple of vandals hammering at a statue of Mahatma Gandhi with a sledgehammer Tuesday night. While one of them succeeded in toppling the statue, a group of six stomp on it, taking turns to hammer the broken statue in what can only be called over-kill.

The New York Post reported that six men smashed the Gandhi statue to pieces around 1:30 am on Tuesday and painted it with obscenities.

According to CBS News, Lakhram Maharaj, the founder of Shri Tulsi Mandir, the Hindu temple in South Richmond Hill, discovered the vandalised Gandhi statue. The word "dog" was spray painted both in front of the temple and down the block.

"To see them coming after us like this is very painful," he told CBS2.

That same statue was vandalized less than two weeks earlier, on 3 August, 2022.

“We recognise that the community-wide impact of hate crimes is far reaching and we vigorously investigate all occurrences of hate crimes and any hate-bias incidents," the report quoted Constable Amy Boudreau, spokesperson for York Regional Police, as saying.

New York State Assembly member Jennifer Rajkumar tweeted condemning the incident and of working towards peaceful ways to “combat anti-Hindu hate”.

She also called for “the perpetrators to be apprehended swiftly, charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.

According to a CBS News report, hate crime in the city has gone up to 15.7 per cent as compared to last year.

With inputs from agencies

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