Lenin Statue Toppled In Tripura: Is This Vandalism Justified?
Over the last couple of years, Indian politics has focused on the most pressing issues of our times. Such as: is Nehru responsible for everything that's going wrong in India today? Would Sardar Patel have made a better PM? Should Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary be celebrated or not? Should a film on an alleged historical figure, Rani Padmavati, be released? And now, the last 24 hours have been consumed by Vladimir Lenin. The people of Tripura voted for change, they voted for development, to teach the Left a lesson. And so, a crowd shouting "Bharat mata ki jay" decided to topple a Lenin statue in the state after the BJP's big win. It is a move that's been supported by the governor Tathagta Roy, which shouldn't come as a surpirse but more on that later. It has been hailed by senior BJP leaders and there have been calls to bring down other statues of other historical figures. So the debate is: Should we, as a civilised democracy, condone any kind of vandalism or violence? Isn't that what the Taliban did? Or, should historical figures that represent tyranny and oppression, be obliterated from public memory?
