Mob vandalises statue of King Edward VII in Bettiah hospital

BETTIAH: A mob of youth, shouting slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, stormed the premises of the

M J K Hospital and Government Medical College

here on Thursday and brutally vandalized the exquisite marble life-size statue of

British monarch King Edward VII

(1901-1910).

The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince-Consort Albert, Edward or Bertie as he was known to family like his namesake Edward VIII who abdicated the throne in 1936, had succeeded his mother as King-Emperor of India. In the year, Bertie the second abdicated the throne, Irene Hilda Elmes, wife of the ICS officer JP Elmes, laid the foundation to rebuild the

King Edward VII

Memorial Hospital that had been ruined by the Bihar earthquake of January 1934. Edward VII’s idol in marble has graced the premises since then, though the hospital was renamed ‘Maharani Janki Kuer Hospital’ after independence.

“I have informed the police about a mob vandalizing the statue,” hospital superintendent Dhirendra Nath Thakur told this newspaper. “An FIR has been lodged and an organization’s name has come up. The culprits will be arrested,” Bettiah SP Jayant Kant said.

While the SP did not name the organization allegedly involved, a press release to select mediapersons (not TOI) from one Rohit Mishra, president of the local M J K College Students’ Union, full of self-praising content for himself and his co-conspirators, all named therein and including one Dipesh Singh and Manish Kasyap, claimed ‘credit’ for the incident in the name of ‘Yuva Jagran Manch’.

“Bharat Mata ki Jai, Vande Matram ka naara bhi lagayaa,” he wrote, adding a statement from co-vandal, Manish Kasyap, the idol shall be replaced with one of Subhash Chandra Bose in ‘military appearance’ (sainya-chabbi).

“We are deriving great pleasure by demolishing this last vestige of (our) slavery.” Mishra’s lengthy prose reads, signing off with an appeal: “If anyone sees a similar idol anywhere else in Bihar, do inform us. I, Rohit Mishra, Dipesh Singh and Manish Kasyap will reach there and demolish such signs of slavery.”

Curiously, the gang of vandals have a deep and wide footprint of their mind and intent on social media. On Wednesday, Dipesh Singh, a ward councillor in the Bettiah Nagar Parishad, sent out a message on an instant messaging platform, asking people to join the idol demolition on Thursday morning.

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