The Indian embassy in Washington has taken up the matter with the US Department of State, and the consulate general in San Francisco is following up with local authorities.
According to PTI, there had been protests at the time of the installation of the statue from “anti-Gandhi and anti-India organisations”. A group called the Organisation for Minorities in India (OFMI) reportedly spearheaded the protests and had launched a campaign for removing the statue after the city had voted to install it.
Indian-American groups such as the Friends of India Society International (FISI) and the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) have condemned the act of vandalism, PTI reports. Guaran Desai from the FISI claimed that OFMI and “other Khalistani separatists” had run hate campaigns against Indian icons.
The HAF has called upon the Department of Homeland security and the FBI to investigate the incident as a hate crime, “as it was likely done with the intention of intimidating the Indian…