Ambedkar's idol in police custody?

Ambedkar's statue reportedly confiscated by cops; Andhra Bhavan employees planned to honour the Dalit icon

It took six months to shape. It cost sixty thousand rupees and was fetched over 1600 km. And finally it didn't quite make it.


Statue and limitations The idol of Dr Ambedkar (below) that Andhra Bhavan
employees wanted to erect, but were allegedly prevented. Pic/Rajeev Tyagi

On the occasion of Dr BR Ambedkar's 119th birth anniversary, the SC/ST employees' welfare association at Andhra Bhavan in Delhi had planned to erect a statue of the Dalit icon. Money was collected from all the members and a ten foot statue was brought over on Tuesday from Andhra Pradesh on the Swarna Jayanti Express.

"We brought the statue at Andhra Bhavan with the permission of the resident commissioner but when we reached here with the statue, Delhi police and Andhra police stopped us at the main gate and prevented us from taking the statue inside Andhra Bhavan" said Lingan Raja, president of the SC/ST employees' welfare association at Andhra Bhavan. "Delhi Police also took the statue of BR Ambedkar to the Tilak Marg police station," he added.u00a0u00a0

However, Tilak Marg police rejected the allegations and denied confiscating any statue from Andhra Bhavan.
"We had been writing and requesting the government of Andhra Pradesh and the commissioner of the Andhra Bhavan for the last six years but they didn't give us a positive response. We brought the statue only with the permission of the commissioner of the Andhra Bhavan," said a member of the association.

According to Dr. Rajat Bhargava, commissioner of Andhra Bhavan, "I had not given any permission to establish the statue of Dr BR Ambedkar here; they came on their own without any prior notice."

Members of the SC/ST employees' welfare association also protested on Wednesday in front of the visiting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah.