Bengaluru: Ever since the statue of Goddess Saraswati was displaced to make room for a statue of Buddha two days ago, controversy and tensions have been high in the Jnanabharathi campus of Bangalore University. This issue has not grabbed the attention of Home Minister M B Patil, who has asked the state police chief to submit a report on the issue.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Patil said that the University should not have replaced one statue with another and great respect is given to both Goddess Saraswati and Buddha and added that the police chief has been instructed to maintain status quo.
It can be recalled that some students under The Federation of Bangalore University Post Graduation and Research Scholar Students, placed a statue of Gautham Buddha where the new statue of Saraswati was supposed to be placed. An old statue of the Goddess which was first installed back in 1973, was removed to make way for a new one as it had worn out over the years.
After the Buddha statue was installed, the students who opposed this approached the administration to remove it and even held a silent protest. When tensions rose in the campus, the University administration was forced to call the local police on Monday to defuse the situation.
According to sources, the statues signify a deeper war among the faculty and students who are divided on political ideologies.
Recently, a high-level meeting chaired by Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor KR Venugopal on Tuesday, decided that the Buddha statue will be installed at a separate place within the University campus while the Saraswati statue will be placed at its original spot.
