New York: The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) has written to The Park Service who are in-charge of maintaining the Gandhi statue situated near the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. that it will pay for its restoration after the same was desecrated last week during the protests against police brutality.
“Mahatma Gandhi being the practitioner and apostle of peace and harmony everywhere, to see a statue of such an icon being vandalized is very much disturbing and painful,” said Johnson Myalil, the president of the Washington chapter of the Indian Overseas Congress on Saturday.
At the same time he said, the attacks on the Mahatma and his teachings anywhere in the world are deplorable.
Myalil wrote to National Park Service Acting Director David Vela that the IOC would bear the cost of restoring the Gandhi statue which was dedicated in 2000 by former President Bill Clinton and former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The 2.6-metre tall statue was designed by sculptor Gautam Pal and depicts Gandhi as he led the 1930 Salt Satyagraha and bears his quote, “My life is my message.”
US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster apologized last week for the desecration of the statue.
