India veep scheduled to unveil Ghandi statue in Malawi
India’s vice president Vankai Naido is scheduled to visit Malawi from November 4 to 5 when, among other engagements, he is expected to unveil the controversial Mahatma Ghandi statue in Blantyre.
Foreign Affairs ministry of India says Naido is also expected to unveil a business centre in Blantyre before flying to Zimbabwe and Botswana.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Information Lilongwe and Blantyre City Council officials remained mum on whether the Indian vice president would unveil the statue following a court injunction obtained by ‘Ghandi must fall’ campaign movement.
The High Court in Blantyre has since set November 12 for interparte hearing of the court injunction.
Two individuals—Pemphero Mphande and Mkotama Katenga-Kaunda—obtained the order against BCC, the Attorney General (on behalf of Ministry of Information and Communications Technology) and the contractor, Plem Construction.
In his sworn affidavit, Mphande argued that Gandhi made remarks that Indians were superior to black people, among others.
The government has since stopped the construction of the statue which raised eye-brows and anger among some section of society which say Ghandi has no place in Malawi history.
“We will fight the construction of the statue in the court. We are also planning to petition the Blantyre City Council on the matter. We don’t want this statue. Ghandi has no place in our history, Ghandi was racist who labeled Africans as savages. He only fought for the independence of India,” said Mphande.
But in earlier interviews, Minister of Information Nicholas Dausi said the Malawi government was not spending any money on the statue, saying the resources came from India to construct the statue and a conference centre.
He described Ghandi as a man of high integrity and respected all over the world, saying this was reason enough to have his statue in the commercial city of Blantyre.
Utsogoleri woipa umabweretsa nyasi zoterezi mdziko
Tell these fuckers to construct the Mahatma ghandi road to dual carriage way than imposing a statue on us..Dausi photo grapher chitsilu galu…mufuna kuchenjela pomwe mukupusa
We call ourselves a sovereign state and yet our economy is controlled by Indians and, recently, by the Chinese as well. These two nations have priority in land purchase, particularly in cities if Blantyre, LL, ZA and Mzuzu; all activities facilitated by DPP and APM. Noticed how honorary degrees are flowing from China & India?
We are dammed!
I have a problem with the FACT that a beautiful tree was chopped down to make way for a statue! A mature tree that provided home for so many birds and shade to the people. SAD that the Blantyre city allows all this in the name of development.
It’s ironic that this tree was destroyed in the name of Gandhi who was peaceful and wouldn’t won’t to harm a fly. I am sure he would have disapproved strongly.
MANY MALAWIANS HAVE MARRIED WAZUNGU. HOW MANY HAVE MARRIED INDIANS? WHY SHOULD WE ENTERTAIN RACISTS? DPP HAS FAILED MALAWIANS.
Ha ha ha
Uma silira amwenye. These mwenye chicks dont come cheap and easy.
Dausi was interviewed on BBC, mind you his English was translated by a person who thought Dausis English was incomplete and could not be understood by an average English man. Please Dausi do not glorifie Ghandi. He was a racist that you to him you were a sub human.
Eeeeeeer koma maganizo ndi kayankhidwe ka Mr Dausi abale, ndi komvetsa chisoni. Ndalama ikutilamula basi
azapanga unveil chomangamanga kale abweretsatu ameneyo
Do we have a statue of DR H. Kamuzu in India??????????? Mr Dausi please answer this question
Let them erect their god at Indian Sports Club. No problem with that. Imagine they don’t allow Malawians at their club either.
We need a new campaign on that, several places where we not allowed by these stupid indians
We have to respect our heros in malawi not him why cant you put one for Gadama, Yatuta Chisiza who have a history of Malawi .Malawians where is our country going to ??????????????????