Ahead of birth anniversary, Ambedkar statue locked in cage in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun

Ahead of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar's birth anniversary tomorrow, a statue of the Dalit icon was protected with a cage in Badaun in Uttar Pradesh.

The Badaun administration has deployed a policeman to guard the caged statue to ensure more security.

The move comes amid the vandalisation of a number of Ambedkar statues in different parts of the country.

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A statue of Ambedkar painted in saffron, unlike usual blue colour, was installed in Budaun's Dugraiyya village on Monday. The statue was rebuilt after it was vandalised. However, it was repainted with blue colour the following day.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs asked all states to beef up security and check any possible attempt to incite violence during the Ambedkar Jayanti. The ministry said that districts magistrates and superintendents of police should ensure peace and check violence in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

On Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh Home Department directed the state police to ensure the security of statues of famous figures.

The vandalisation of statues gained momentum after the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the Tripura assembly elections in March. A mob with the help of bulldozers uprooted and demolished a five-foot-tall fibre-glass Lenin statue at the College Square in south Tripura's Belonia.

In the recent past, statues of prominent personalities, like social activist EV Ramasamy "Periyar" in Vellore city of Tamil Nadu, and Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee`s statue in Kolkata, have been vandalised.