The Government of Ghana has indicated that the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the independence movement in British-ruled India, will be removed from the University of Ghana.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration said on Wednesday October 5 that the relocation was for safety purposes.
The statue was defaced recently with the iconic spectacle of the Indian leader being removed by unknown persons.
“The government would, therefore want to relocate the statue from the University of Ghana to ensure its safety and to avoid the controversy on the Legon Campus being a distraction of our strong ties of friendship that has existed over the years,” a statement on the website of the ministry said on Wednesday October 5.
This comes after weeks of opposition to its installation by some critics who accused Ghandi of racism. They have launched a campaign called #GhandiMustFall or #GandhiForComeDown on social media to bolster their crusade.
The clamour against Ghandi’s statue, installed at the recreational quadrangle of the university’s Legon campus in Accra, comes three months after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee gifted the statue to Ghana’s premier university. The ‘Ghandi Must Fall’ campaign was started by a group of the university’s professors and students led by a former director of the Institute of African Studies, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo. The group has petitioned the university authorities to that end.
They argue that Gandhi was “inherently racist”. The ‘Gandhi For Come Down’ (pidgin for Gandhi Must Come Down), is inspired by the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign against a statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University.
Government, however, disagreed with the group as it pointed out that: “As human as he was, Mahatma Gandhi may have had his flaws, [but] we must remember that people evolve. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.”
According to the press release, “the unfortunate verbal attack on Mahatma Gandhi is effectively an attack on an Indian nationalist hero and icon who is revered and cherished by over one billion people who are either citizens of India or persons of Indian descent”.
The Ministry stressed that such negative behaviour has “the potential to create disaffection not only at the level of government relations, but also between people not only in our country but all over the world”.
To this end, the Ministry is urging Ghanaians to look beyond the comments attributed to Mahatma Gandhi and acknowledge his role as one of the most outstanding personalities of the last century.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
