New Delhi: The latest favourite entrant into the sport that is India’s politics has been the game of statue.

Over the past few weeks, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to break his silence and referee the matches. On Wednesday, he expressed his disapproval about the toppling of Lenin’s statue in south Tripura and the vandalism of social activist and politician E.V. Ramasamy ‘Periyar’ bust in Vellore in Tamil Nadu.

In the latest gaffe, BJP workers in West Bengal went on a statue purifying spree after party members and alleged Trinamool Congress members had an altercation outside Keoratala crematorium in Kolkata on Thursday when they went there to “purify” a bust of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee after it was reportedly defaced and blackened by some students of Jadavpur University (JU) and members of an ultra-Left group named ‘Radical’ a day before.

Armed with milk and Gangajal, BJP workers made a beeline for various busts of Mookerjee in the state to mark their protest against the clash on Thursday.

“As directed by our party’s state president, our workers carried out the purification programmes across the state. This is to mark our protest against yesterday’s attack on our activists,” said state BJP general secretary Sanjay Singh.

However, in Serampore, reported the Indian Express, BJP workers were allegedly assaulted by TMC members after they purified a bust. The party’s Hooghly district president Bhaskar Bhattacharya and others were injured in the attack.

Also read:

» After bringing down Lenin’s statue in Tripura, BJP leaders turn to Periyar in Tamil Nadu

» ‘Jan Gan Man Ki Baat’: Vinod Dua discusses the recent incidents of vandalism triggered by the demolition of Lenin’s statue in Tripura by BJP supporters

» BJP’s Ram Madhav, state governor hail toppling of Lenin statue in Tripura

“The programme was carried out today in an emergency situation. We did not inform the police as it was initiated at the eleventh hour. But TMC workers under the leadership of (local leaders) Pappu Singh and Uttam Roy launched an attack on us. We had completed our programme by the time they came to the spot, but still they beat us up. This is very unfortunate,” Bhattacharya told reporters.

Denying the allegations, Pappu Singh said, “We had gone there to purify the statue as we do not believe in damaging statues of great personalities. BJP workers were there but there was no trouble.”

The spree of statue vandalisation continued unabated when on Tuesday night, a statue of B.R. Ambedkar has been vandalised by unidentified miscreants in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut.

But hypocrisy also reared it ugly head in light of these recent incidents as BJP rushes to protect certain statues and debase others. For example, BJP’s Ram Madhav and state governor and former West Bengal state unit chief of the BJP, Tathagata Roy, hailed the toppling of Lenin’s statue in Tripura. This is despite the fact that BJP cadres not only brought down the statue but also reportedly “played football with the head of the statue”.