Tension flared in Uttar Pradesh’s Kodapur village after a statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar was allegedly uprooted and thrown into a nearby canal by unidentified individuals, the police said on Monday.

According to officials, preliminary findings from the revenue department indicate that the statue had been placed on a disputed access path through farmland. “Unidentified miscreants removed the statue and chucked it into a nearby canal. The statue had been a point of contention among local residents,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ganganagar) Kuldeep Singh Gunawat told PTI.

A case has been registered, and authorities have assured that a new statue will be installed at the earliest. “The situation in the area remains peaceful and under control,” Gunawat added.

Not the first incident

The Kodapur incident is part of a worrying pattern of recurring vandalism targeting statues of Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution.

In January 2024, a man was arrested in Amritsar, Punjab, for allegedly attempting to damage a statue of Ambedkar on Republic Day. A widely circulated video showed the accused, identified as Akashdeep Singh of Moga, climbing up the statue using a steel ladder and striking it repeatedly with a hammer.

The man also targeted the accompanying sculpture of the Constitution book.

The statue was located on Amritsar’s Heritage Street and had been prepared for ceremonial garlanding when the incident took place.

A recurring pattern in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh has also witnessed multiple such incidents over the past few years. On February 13, 2023, a statue of Ambedkar in Bommalasatram village of Nandyal district was vandalised. Its finger and nose were disfigured.

Police claimed to have identified the accused through CCTV footage and said they had formed teams to apprehend them. However, when approached, the Sub-Inspector refused to disclose the specific charges under which the case was booked.

In a separate but equally troubling incident on the same day, a skit performed at Jain University’s Centre for Management Studies (CMS) in Bengaluru led to the arrest of seven students and the principal. The performance, which included derogatory references to Ambedkar and casteist overtones, featured a character named “Beer Ambedkar,” sparking condemnation from student and Dalit rights organisations.

Older cases still fresh

In February 2021, police in Chintalapudi, Andhra Pradesh, arrested a man for desecrating an Ambedkar statue by garlanding it with footwear.

Two years prior, in 2018, parts of Ambedkar’s statue were broken in Pedagantyada, on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam, further underlining the repeated targeting of his legacy in public spaces.

Just last year too, in December 2024, Ahmedabad police arrested two individuals Jayesh Thakor and another unidentified person for vandalising an Ambedkar statue in Khokhara.

The statue, placed near Jayantilal Vakil Chali close to K K Shastri College, was found with its nose and glasses defaced.

While police responses have varied from state to state, and cases are being registered, in many of these cases, the vandalised statues are eventually replaced, and arrests are made.

But the repetition of such incidents are a part of a recurring pattern of provocation which only leads to the next big question, that is, why does the legacy of a man who laid the foundation for modern India’s Constitution continue to face such deliberate desecration?