A statue of BR Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution, was vandalised in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly on Wednesday night.

The assault on the statue captured on CCTV camera -- flagged by the Bhim Army chief and Lok Sabha MP from Nagina, Chandrashekhar Azad -- happened the day the ruling BJP in the Centre observed as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas, against the imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi 50 years ago.

“This act of vandalism on Babasaheb’s statue is not only a cowardly and punishable act, it hurts the sentiments of all the people who follow the path of Ambedkar. He was instrumental in giving shape to post-independent India and liberated women and the victims of caste atrocities,” the Nagina MP wrote, demanding the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh to identify the vandals and punish them.

The video shows three men hitting an outstretched arm of Ambedkar and also on the statue’s neck. Of the three vandals involved, the face of one is partially visible.

The incident happened at the village Gangapur in Bareilly’s Nawabgunj tehsil.

“Why are you so scared of Babasaheb? You know the day this section becomes well-versed in the teachings of Babasaheb, the walls of injustice and Manuvaad will break down,” the Nagina MP wrote.

Azad said the government’s inaction against perpetrators of similar acts elsewhere in the state had emboldened them.

“The hatred is not restricted to the statues, it is an attack on the Bahujan samaj’s self-respect, history and future,” he said.

Earlier this month in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia about two dozen men armed with sticks and iron rods attacked a Dalit family for organising the ceremony at a banquet hall in Rasra.

In Agra, a Dalit groom was forced to climb down a horse on the way to his wedding venue last month.

In BJP-ruled Odisha’s Ganjam, barely two days ago, two Dalit men were assaulted, half tonsured and forced to eat grass and drink drain water after being accused of cattle smuggling.

TTO has not independently verified the authenticity of the video.