Gandhi statue in San Francisco protested
Saturday, 02 Oct 2010
(NEWSCORE) – A group of protesters in San Francisco Saturday planned to demand the removal of a statue of Mohandas Gandhi, hoping to expose the “racism and sham nonviolence” of the famously nonviolent Indian leader, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The Organization for Minorities of India will ask for the removal of a bronze statue of Gandhi that has sat in a plaza behind the prominent San Francisco Ferry Building since 1988. And the group — which seeks to publicize the oppression of Christians, Buddhists, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, and other Indian minorities — claimed Gandhi was a racist with violent urges, the paper said.
“The popular image of Gandhi as an egalitarian pacifist is a myth,” Bhajan Singh, one of the organizers, reportedly said in a statement. “We plan to challenge that myth by disseminating Gandhi’s own words to expose his racism and sham nonviolence.”
The protesters planned to direct their demands at the Ferry Building management, but the statue is actually under the supervision of the San Francisco Arts Commission, which doubted the statue would be taken down, the Chronicle said.
“I suppose Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela must have their critics as well,” Arts Commission President P.J. Johnston told the Chronicle in response to the planned demonstration. “These folks are free to lodge their protest, but I doubt that our commission will move to take down the statue.”
Source: San Francisco Gate Continue reading
Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle 