Bengaluru: Black Lives Matter is a protest that has been going on for several days now, condemning the killing of George Floyd in the Unites States. 

But the protest has been hijacked to carry out acts of vandalism, with several incidents of statues being brought down reported. 

Also Read: Washington apologises to India

The latest incident is of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi being vandalised in Amsterdam. 

Unknown miscreants vandalized the statue of Mahatma Gandhi with graffiti and spray painting, a popular website reported. 

The website further reported that mayor of Amsterdam Alderman Rutger Groot Wassink would file a declaration on the matter. He said, “Obviously, we are opposed to any form of vandalism and daubing of these things is completely unacceptable. It is logical that we will file a declaration, the image will be cleaned.”

It was an old man who identified the vandalism. He is reported to have said, “I have lived here for forty years and I have never experienced this. I have been watching the statue for years.” An employee of the Kunstwach, who takes charge of repairing and maintenance of the statue said the cleaning work can take hours.

Earlier, there was a proposal to bring down a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Leicester. 

Also Read: Should Gandhijji statue be uninstalled?

The petition, which had as many as 6000 signatures, alleged that Gandhi was “a fascist, racist and sexual predator. For years he has been idolised and taught in school curriculum. For a lot of people in my community, he has bought inconsolable suffering against my people. As a result, I do not wish to see a statue and praise of that kind of character”.

It is also pertinent to note that a Gandhi statue was also vandalised in Washington. 

United States' Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster had issued an apology.

On his Twitter account, he had said, “So sorry to see the desecration of the Gandhi statue in Wash, DC. Please accept our sincere apologies. Appalled as well by the horrific death of George Floyd & the awful violence & vandalism. We stand against prejudice & discrimination of any type. We will recover & be better.”