Australia:Gandhi's statue damaged, won't tolerate- Morrison

In Australia, a life-sized statue of Mahatma Gandhi, gifted by the Indian government, was vandalised in Melbourne last Saturday. According to reports, the incident occurred a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled the statue at the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville on Friday along with the Consul General of India Raj Kumar and other leaders of Australia.

Condemning the act, Morrison told SBS News that he was devastated to hear about the vandalism, adding that attacks on cultural monuments will not be tolerated." It is disgraceful and extremely disappointing to see this level of disrespect. Whoever is responsible for this has shown great disrespect to the Australian-Indian community and should be ashamed," Morrison added. The Victoria Police said that an unknown number of offenders used a tool to decapitate the statue between last Friday and Saturday, the ABC report said, adding the Knox Crime Investigation Unit detectives are probing the matter and have urged witnesses to come forward with any details. The Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville is the first such centre of the Indian community in Victoria and was established after three decades of effort, Surya Prakash Soni, president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria said.