Chennai: Swift all-round condemnation and quick action by police appear to have prevented a statue confrontation from spiralling out of control in Tamil Nadu.
A statue of Periyar outside a civic office in Vellore, 200km from here, was vandalised on Tuesday night after the Facebook page of H. Raja, a national general secretary of the BJP from the state, predicted that a fate similar to the toppled statue of Lenin will befall those of Periyar.
The post was deleted on Tuesday evening but that did not stop the Vellore vandals from taking the cue. State police arrested four persons, of which two - identified by officers as BJP and CPI supporters - were reportedly drunk. The BJP expelled the suspect, R. Muthuraman, while the CPI denied any link with the other accused.
Apparently in retaliation to the Vellore incident, a petrol bomb was hurled at a BJP office in Coimbatore. Three suspects, said to be volunteers of the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, have been arrested.
Although E.V. Ramasamy Naicker, affectionately called "Periyar" by his disciples, is a rationalist who vehemently opposed praying to any deity, his statues have been installed in several parts of the state. The pedestal of these statues had the following inscription: "There is no God. Whoever believes in God is an idiot and an aborigine."
Waking up to a snowballing backlash, Raja blamed the staff managing his Facebook page and expressed regret over the post.
"Regarding the Facebook post about E.V. Ramasamy (Periyar), it was a mistake by admin. I was coming in a flight from Chennai to Delhi. As soon as I landed, I saw it and removed the post and removed the admin. I did not concur with what was posted," Raja said at New Tamil Nadu House in the national capital on Wednesday.
A source close to Raja denied that he was reprimanded. "He met the party leadership to discuss his duties in the Tamil areas of Karnataka in the upcoming Assembly polls. He will visit Delhi again in 15 days," the source said.
Every leader who counts in Tamil Nadu, including DMK working president M.K. Stalin, condemned the vandalism of the Periyar statue.
Actor-politician Kamal Haasan, who has been trumpeting his devotion to "Dravidam" and to Periyar, was among those who said Raja's statement was not enough. "I don't think he has apologised. Regret is not sufficient for me or the people. Words are like arrows, nothing can be taken back," Kamal said.
On Wednesday, when a PIL was moved in Madras High Court, the state government told the court about the arrests and measures taken to maintain law and order. Then the court said it was satisfied with the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu and closed the PIL.
Heavy police security has been ordered in all the places in the state where such statues have been installed. The headquarters of the BJP in Chennai has also been cordoned off.
Both the DMK and the AIADMK, which have been ruling Tamil Nadu for more than half a century since 1967, are splinters of the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) founded by Periyar.
All the statues have official patronage although it has always been fashionable to talk of rationalism in Tamil Nadu even by the most devout like former chief ministers M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa. They used to swear by Periyar and take part in religious rituals.
The wife and daughter-in-law of another Peiyar protégé - former chief minister M. Karunanidhi - are regular temple-goers. A temple is located within metres of the residence of Karunanidhi at Gopalapuram in Chennai.
Additional reporting by Pheroze L. Vincent
