Gandhi, Ambedkar, Birsa Munda, Shivaji uprooted from Parliament?

Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji, among others, have been removed from their original place within the Parliament premises and shifted to a lawn near the old building — apparently as part of a 'landscaping' exercise — a move that drew sharp criticism from the Congress on 6 June.

All the statues, including those of tribal leader Birsa Munda and of Maharana Pratap, are now clustered together in this one spot between the old parliament building and the parliament library.

According to sources, the government is redeveloping the area and is building a 'statue park'.

Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said on X:

Slamming the caretaker BJP government for the move, Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said that when Maharashtra voters did not vote for BJP, the statues of Shivaji and Ambedkar were removed from their original place in Parliament too.

When they did not get clean sweep in Gujarat, he said, they removed the statue of Mahatma Gandhi from its original place in Parliament.

In an X post in Hindi, he added:

As part of the redevelopment of external areas around the old parliament building (now Samvidhan Sadan), the statues of national icons such as Gandhi, Shivaji and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule were to be moved to a lawn near Gate No. 5.

This is to pave the way for the creation of a vast lawn in front of the Gaja Dwar, which is used by the president and the prime minister to enter the new parliament building.

Questioning the move, CPI general secretary D. Raja also posted on X, saying, 'The arbitrary and unilateral decision to shift the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Parliament House premise is condemnable.'