KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 – The decision by the British government to erect the statue of India’s Independence Icon Mahatma Gandhi in London’s Parliament Square is a very fitting tribute to the great civil rights leader, said Gandhi Memorial Trust (GMT) Chairman S.Radhakrishnan.
In welcoming the move, Radhakrishnan said he was certain that the gesture would be welcomed by peace loving people all over the world.
“Gandhi, deemed as the father of the world’s largest democracy, led India to Independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Many countries have honoured Mahatma Gandhi in various ways,” he told Bernama.
Radhakrishnan was responding to the British government’s move to install a statue of Gandhi opposite Parliament alongside statues of other pioneering statesmen, including Nelson Mandela, Sir Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
According to the Washington Post, the statue is scheduled to be unveiled next spring to mark the centennial of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa, where the then-young lawyer had begun cultivating his ideas about
self-rule and civil disobedience.
Radhakrishnan said a number of countries had honoured Gandhi in many different ways like issuing commemorative stamps besides the Mahatma Gandhi District in Houston, Texas, United States which was named after him.
“The United Nations General Assembly on June 15, 2007 unanimously adopted a resolution to designate Oct 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, as the International Day of Non-Violence,” he added.
— BERNAMA
