What a spectacle! Gandhi's glasses go missing from statues in Jalandhar, Ludhiana

The stage was set for Gandhi Jayanti celebrations on the Company Bagh premises by the Municipal Corporation authorities on Wednesday, when it was discovered that Mahatma Gandhi's spectacles had gone missing from his statue.

However, before the arrival of politicians for the routine garlanding of the statue, a pair of spectacles was hurriedly arranged by officials. To everyone's dismay, the new spectacles did not conform to the iconic glasses associated with Gandhi. It was a metal frame of rusted golden, instead of the black plastic, round frame the Father of the Nation was partial to.

Asked about the faux pas, the Assistant Commissioner, MC, Rajesh Khokhar, remarked: "I am unaware that the spectacles went missing and were replaced with new ones. I will have to enquire about it from the Superintending Engineer concerned."

Unlike Gandhi's statue in Amritsar, where it is encased in glass, the one at Company Bagh in Jalandhar is uncovered. Officials said some mischievous elements would have made away with the spectacles placed on the statue.

The politicians who attended the event, meanwhile, complained that even the paint job on the statue was patchy and shoddy, with the lower cement surface showing through the paint.

The statue of Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose birth anniversary also falls today, was also garlanded at Shastri Chowk in Jalandhar. Paint on this statue, too, was patchy.

Ludhiana: Residents, who had gathered to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, were in for a surprise when they noticed that Gandhi's spectacles were missing from his statue installed at the entrance of MC Zone A office.

Shastri's statue, however, was found in proper condition near the Daresi Ground here.