Yogi Govt shifts Nehru’s statue away from Anand Bhawan in Allahabad

A statue of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was shifted on Thursday, September 13 from Allahabad's Balsan Crossing, barely 200 metres from his childhood home Anand Bhawan, to a corner because allegedly it was coming in the way of beautification of the city, where the Ardh Kumbh Mela would be held next year.

The statue was in front of a park named after the first Prime Minister of the country, who had spent his formative days in Anand Bhawan. His daughter and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had donated the house to the Government of India in 1970.

Interestingly, on the same crossing, there are statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Sources in the government said that Gandhi’s statue would also be shifted soon. But, the government has no plan to shift the statue of Upadhyaya, an RSS ideologue.

“I have come to know that the Yogi Adityanath government is planning to change the name of Nehru Park as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Park. Nehru's statue was covered with dirty gunny bags and the labourers and the officers of Allahabad Development Authority shifted it,” said Sanjay Tiwari, a local Congress leader.

“Prime Minister Modi believes that malign and reduce the stature of Nehru by targeting him in his speeches and bringing down his statue. But the fact is that irrespective of their political leanings, the people of Allahabad love Nehru and will teach Modi a lesson in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,”added Tiwari.

The Congress and Samajwadi Party workers organised a dharna on Thursday and Friday to register their protest. They accused the administration of deliberately trying to malign India's first prime minister's image.

However, the Allahabad Development authority officials deny any such intention. ADA engineer, SD Sharma, said, “There is no politics in the decision of shifting the statue. As per the map there would be three roundabouts on Balsan Crossing and the statues of the three leaders would be in each corner. The idea is to widen and beautify the crossing.”

For the record, Amit Shah, who became BJP President in 2014, had visited the spot in 2013 to garland Upadhyaya’s statue. But he had ignored the statues of the other two leaders.