No, Rabindranath Tagore Statue Wasn't Damaged By Extremists In Dhaka

A set of images showing a defaced statue of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is going viral across social media. The image showing a damaged statue of the Bengali poet is being shared with the claim that “extremists” defaced the statue of Tagore.

Claim:

The first image shows a statue of Rabindranath Tagore with tape across the statue’s mouth. The statue holds a book in one hand with a nail driven through it. Meanwhile, the second image shows the head from Tagore’s statue defaced with the nose and jaw missing.

Twitter page Voice Of Bangladeshi Hindus states, “Extremists have defaced the sculpture of Rabindranath Tagore. Place: TSC, Dhaka University.”

The images are viral across Twitter and Facebook with a similar claim.

Fact Check:

We conducted a reverse image search and came across a report by Deccan Herald containing the same image in its thumbnail published on February 20, 2023. The report is titled, ‘Newly-unveiled Rabindranath Tagore statue at Dhaka University campus vanishes, then reappears’.

We then came across another image of the Tagore statue from a different angle in a report published by BDNews24 on February 15, 2023. The report is captioned, “A group of Dhaka University students have installed a statue of Rabindranath Tagore on the campus with the mouth taped and a book in its hands nailed. They hope the sculpture will raise awareness about the right to freedom of speech.”

Delving into the matter, we conducted another keyword search and came across a report by New Age Bangladesh published on February 17, 2023. The report notes that the statue was removed on Febraury 16, 2023. The New Age Bangladesh report notes that Dhaka University authorities removed a sculpture of Rabindranath Tagore, which was installed, in protest against recent censorship and alleged repression in the country by university students near the anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus.

The New Age Bangladesh report quotes Shimul Kumbhakar, president of the DU unit of Bangladesh Students’ Union, who was associated with the statue's installation. Kumbhakar said, “The sculpture is no longer there — since Thursday morning. However, we learned from some eyewitnesses that the sculpture of Rabindranath was removed by the university’s proctorial team early Thursday morning… But the proctor told us that he knew nothing about that.”

Shimul said that the sculpture was broken into pieces and was allegedly found in shreds at Suhrawardy Udyan, a national memorial in Dhaka, Bangaladesh. “We don’t understand why it was done,” he is quoted as saying.

The president of the Dhaka University unit of Bangladesh Students’ Union also noted that the ‘protesting sculpture’ of Rabindranath Tagore was installed against the recent incidents of censorship and oppression in the country by a group of students at the entrance of the TSC Book Fair organised by the DU authorities on Tuesday.

A Daiji World report published on February 12, 2023, quoted university proctor AKM Golam Rabbani saying, “The university has a policy of placing sculptures on the campus. The sculpture (of Tagore) was placed without informing the university administration. Therefore, the administration removed it.”

We also came across a report by the Dhaka Tribune published on February 18, 2023. The report noted that after the Dhaka University authorities removed the sculpture of Rabindranath Tagore, the statue has returned to its place. The DU students found several parts of the sculpture around the campus and built it again next to the Raju Memorial Sculpture.

The image contained the pieces of the statue that the students had collected parts of the statue. The second viral image can be seen here.

We then contacted AMC Shahriar, a journalist and former student of Jagannath University, Dhaka. On our behalf, Shahriar connected Golam Rabbani, Proctor, Dhaka University. Rabbani confirmed to us that the university administration has removed the sculpture. He said, "A group of art students made a sculpture of Rabindranath at the book fair in protest against the government's blocking of free thought. The university authorities could not tolerate the protests of the artists during the turbulent times. The university has a policy on placing of sculptures on campus. The sculpture (of Tagore) was placed without informing the university administration. Therefore, the administration removed it. Whoever did this, we tried to find out but couldn't. It was moved, not broken, and done on the order of Vishwavidyalaya. Possibly during the process of removing the sculpture, it had gotten damaged." He further told us that no extremist groups were involved in the incident, and there was no communal angle involved in it. 

Conclusion:

We found that the viral images are shared with the false claim that extremist elements had defaced a statue of Rabindranath Tagore in Dhaka. The statue was reportedly removed by authorities of Dhaka University, which was later put together and reinstalled by students who had placed it there on February 14.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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