Statue vandalism: Lumpen politics hurts growth and development

Political violence is not, of course, the sole responsibility of any one party in India

The upsurge of political violence in Tripura, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh over the past few days raises afresh the disturbing spectre of lumpen politics. To be sure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah acted with admirable speed to curb the violence in Tripura and Tamil Nadu (a Periyar statue was vandalised in Vellore district), and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has had ultra-left miscreants who spray-inked a statue of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, a Hindutva icon, arrested. Vandalising statues of political icons by rival political parties is,