Bengal: Cong pressure forces Nehru statue restoration, BJP, police in focus

A statue of Jawaharlal Nehru in West Bengal's Durgapur has been restored to its original position within 24 hours of the Congress issuing an ultimatum to the police and state authorities, in what the party has described as a significant victory.

The restoration came after the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) warned that it would launch a major agitation if the statue was not reinstated within the deadline. District Congress president Debesh Chakraborty said the police informed the party on Monday, 31 August that the statue had been restored with the help of authorities. He, however, questioned why no one had been arrested over its alleged removal.

“The police called us today to say that they have reinstated the statue with the help of the authorities. But they failed to arrest anyone in the case. This is absurd,” Chakraborty said. “We all know that the statue was uprooted with the help of a crane in the presence of so many people and still they have not been able to find a single person.”

For the Congress, the restoration within its 24-hour deadline has provided a political and organisational boost at a time when the party is seeking to regain ground in West Bengal. Chakraborty, however, said the restoration was only the first step. “This in itself indicates that they are trying to shield the BJP-supported criminals who are behind the incident,” he alleged. “We will be starting a protest in front of the SDO office tomorrow in demand of the arrest of the criminals and action against our FIR.”

Congress leaders and workers later visited the site and paid homage to Nehru. Chakraborty said they poured milk over the statue to wash it and, in their words, "remove the impurities" left after it was touched by those responsible for uprooting it.

The controversy erupted after the large statue of India's first prime minister, located in front of a meditation centre beside Harshavardhan Primary School in Durgapur, was allegedly uprooted with a crane and dumped in a nearby forest area.

The Congress said the incident was not merely an act of vandalism against a statue but an insult to the legacy of one of independent India’s most important leaders. It demanded that those responsible be identified and punished.

The BJP has strongly denied any involvement in the incident. Durgapur East BJP MLA Chandrashekhar Banerjee  said, “I had opposed the crime that was committed by uprooting the statue. No one from our party is involved.”

He said BJP leaders had also paid homage to Nehru after the statue was restored. Banerjee, however, alleged that a section of the Congress was working with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and suggested that members of the two parties could be behind the incident.

“There are two groups in Congress. One group has secretly joined the Trinamool Congress and it is this Trinamool that has demolished the statue of Jawaharlal Nehru. Congress is trying to blame BJP by protesting,” he claimed.

Senior Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya has also demanded strict action against those responsible. “Those criminals who are associated with this are trying to abolish the statues of the great men who fought to make India independent,” he said.

He warned that failure to punish those responsible could encourage similar incidents in the future. “If this becomes a precedent, then statues of many great men will be vandalised in future. The government must take strict action against the miscreants and set an example,” he said.