Gandhi, Ambedkar Parliament statues relocated, govt draws Congress fire | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha secretariat on Thursday said statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji, among others, are being respectfully relocated to a “grand Prerana Sthal” in the Parliament House Complex itself as part of a landscaping exercise, even as the move drew sharp criticism from the Congress.
The Lok Sabha secretariat clarified in a statement, “After construction of the new Parliament building, an action plan has been made for landscaping and beautification of Parliament complex so that it could be made grand and attractive in accordance with the high dignity and decorum of Parliament.”
Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X, “Statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi, and Babasaheb Ambedkar have just been removed from their places of prominence in front of Parliament House.This is atrocious.”
Criticising BJP, Congress’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera remarked that the removal of the statues of Shivaji and Ambedkar from their original places in Parliament was a response to Maharashtra voters not supporting BJP.
Meanwhile, Lok Sabha secretariat statement noted that statues of the nation’s great leaders and freedom fighters were installed at different parts of the complex. “These great leaders and freedom fighters have made significant contributions in the independence of our nation, in the cultural and spiritual renaissance of the nation and in taking the country’s democratic journey forward strongly after independence…”
Ramesh in response to the secretariat’s statement said, “This is as bogus an explanation as you can get from a system run by a megalomaniac who has been decisively rejected by the people of our country.”