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Gandhi graces UK railway station mural

Sanjay Suri in London

Mahatma Gandhi has taken his place along with a fashion designer and a motorcyclist at a new mural unveiled at the Blackburn railway station in north England. But some local people wanted Gandhi replaced by a snooker player.

The politics of past and present broke out with the unveiling of the mural after the refurbishment of the station at a cost of $9 million. The mural features people associated with Lancashire, the local county.

Gandhi was picked because of his historic visit to Lancashire during the 1930s when thousands of local workers came out to support him in the cause of Indian independence.

But a group of local residents is annoyed that the mural left out former world snooker champion Dennis Taylor. Taylor himself said that "whoever decided this didn't think living in Blackburn for 32 years and winning the world championship was enough to qualify". Taylor said he had been left out because Stephen Charnock, who designed the mural, liked non-violence and disliked snooker.

Charnock said he had consulted local people on who to include and there were still many who wanted Gandhi there because of that short visit almost seven decades ago.

He said he had been asked to include eight famous and four ordinary people. The mural, which is 24 metres long, has been put up already along Platform 4.

Others who figure with Gandhi include motorcycling champion Carl Fogerty, businessman and football enthusiast Jack Walker, singer Kathleen Ferrier and fashion designer Wayne Hemingway.

The mural has been put up under a plan to "personalise" railway stations in England. "We welcome public artwork initiatives such as this as they help personalise a station and express what is important to that particular community to the train-travelling public," said Mike Cowman, local director of the firm Railtrack.

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