A worker of the CPI, Francis, and his accomplice were arrested for vandalizing a statue of the founder of Dravidian movement E V Ramasamy “Periyar” in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore on Tuesday.
According to some media reports, the CPI leadership has confirmed that Francis was a party worker. Francis’ accomplice is identified as Muthuraman, a BJP worker, and both of them were in an inebriated state when arrested. BJP Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan expelled Muthuraman on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also strongly disapproved incidents of vandalism, reported from several parts of the country.
According to media reports, following the incident hooligans on bike manhandled 15 Brahmin men at Triplicane in Chennai and cut off that their sacred threads. The attackers also raised slogans in praise of Periyar.
BJP leader H Raja, who on Facebook post wrote in the wake of pulling down of Lenin’s statue in Tripura “Today Lenin’s statue removed in Tripura, tomorrow it will be the statue of EV Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu,” has condemned the incident. He reportedly apologized for the post and said he had took it down from his FB account.
Meanwhile, Kamal Haasan jumped into the controversy and said there was no need to deploy security for Periyar statue as Tamilians are capable of doing it. He tried to give a twist to the controversy by saying that this was an attempt by the BJP to deflect the attention from the Cauvery issue.
Discussion about this post