UP ruled by Samajwadi Party or Bajrang Dal,

conservationists want to know

 

 

 

Agra November 18 (IANS)

 

Heritage conservationists in Agra are alarmed over the activities and threats of a group of Hindu fundamentalists, members of the Bajrang Dal who forced the administration to unceremonisously remove the three rare statues of Queen Victoria and consign them to ignominy in the backyard of a public park.

 

When morning walkers came to Paliwal Park Monday they were surprised to find Queen Victoria's three statues missing from the concrete padestals that had been constructed to mount the statues right in front of the Taj Municipal Museum. "These statues had been lying for years in the Fire Brigade office at police lines and with great difficulty and persuasion the history and heritage lovers were able to shift them to the Taj Municipal Museum. The administration mounted these tall (10 to 12 feet high) ashtdhatu statues on platforms specially constructed," said Rajiv Saxena, a conservationist and senior media person, who for years had been toiling to shift the statues to a safe place and give them the importance they deserved.

 

The Bajrang Dal activists last week had presented a memorandum to the district authorities to demand dismantling of colonial vestiges and statues that glorified the imperialists. "At first the district authorities ignored the threats but suddenly there was a flurry of activities and someone at a higher level ordered the shifting of the statues," a cop on duty guarding the statues said. However, neither the Agra Municipal Corporation nor the District administration is willing to explain the reasons or own up responsibility for first installing the statues and then shifting them away from the museum.

 

The Bajrang Dal on Tuesday issued another threat to the administration to change the name of the John's Public Library where the statues had been installed. "The library should be named after some Indian literary person," the members of the Bajrang Dal said in a press statement. The public library in the Paliwal Park formerly Hewitt park in the heart of the city, was constructed with donations from local businessmen and one Mr John, an industrialist of Agra. The building was used for sessions of the elected municipal body till 1976.

 

"The state is being governed by the Samajwadi Party but the Hindutva elements are dictating terms and forcing the local administration to work on their agenda," commented Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society president Surendra Sharma. He said so many buildings and institutions in Agra are named after the British colonialists. "If these groups were allowed unrestricted freedom to have their way, they may in future demand the Taj Mahal and other monuments to be named after their favourites. This should stop," Sharma added.