NEW DELHI: A portion of an under-construction statue of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee on Sukia Street in north Kolkata was allegedly vandalized overnight, police said on Sunday.A worker who arrived at the scene in the morning found the statue’s tile and plaque damaged. “When I reached here in the morning, I saw that the tile and plaque of the statue were broken. I left here yesterday around 7 pm and reached here this morning at 10 am,” he told ANI.Reacting to the incident, West Bengal Chief Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee condemned the alleged vandalism and said the legacy of the nationalist leader remains deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.“Every citizen of West Bengal knows for whom we live today in West Bengal. If Syama Prasad Mukherjee had not been there, we would still be living in Bangladesh… We will not be affected by such incidents because Syama Prasad Mookerjee resides in the hearts of our people,” he told ANI.The incident comes ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Kolkata on Monday to attend programs commemorating Mukherjee’s birth anniversary. The right-winger was born in Calcutta on July 6, 1901.During his visit, Shah is expected to lay the foundation stone of a proposed 125-foot Mukherjee statue at his ancestral home in Jirat in Hooghly district and attend a memorial program at Biswa Bangla Mela Ground.The Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in West Bengal also declared a holiday on July 6 to mark Mukherjee’s 125th birth anniversary.
