A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel

Vladimir Lenin

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has for the first time condemned overnight the presumed scoundrels who were threatening to make statue vandalism a cross-country mission.

Shedding his signature silences when situations loaded with ideological or political overtones unfold, the government issued a formal statement on behalf of the Prime Minister to rein in vandals who were straining at the leash.

"Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has strongly condemned the reported incidents of vandalism in certain parts of the country and said stern action will be taken against those found guilty. Incidents of toppling of statues have been reported from certain parts of the country," a statement from the government said on Wednesday morning.

For some reason, Modi chose to convey his thoughts through a statement, not through his favourite mode of a television address.

Nevertheless, never before has the Prime Minister condemned so soon an unfolding situation. Neither the lynchings related to cows nor the cold-blooded murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh nor the biggest banking scam in the country had compelled Modi to respond overnight.

This time, the tipping point was not the toppling of Lenin's statue in Tripura but the vandalism of a bust of Periyar, the rationalist who pioneered the self-respect movement in Tamil Nadu. Another source of big worry for the BJP was the attack on an Ambedkar statue in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, a fringe group vandalised a bust of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee at Keoratala in Calcutta.

Some Periyar supporters had already hit back at the BJP in one place in Tamil Nadu. With the sceptre of confrontation looming large in a region that has become the coveted last frontier for the BJP, the party sought to defuse the situation that was allowed to snowball for a full day after the Lenin statue was toppled on Monday night in Tripura's Belonia.

BJP chief Amit Shah issued a statement warning that "any person associated with the BJP found to be involved with destroying any statue will face severe action...."

Realising the potential political cost in the south, Shah tweeted: "The recent issue on destroying of statues is extremely unfortunate. We as a party do not support the bringing down of anybody's statue."

The Union home ministry soon issued back-to-back advisories to all states, appealing for steps to avert such vandalism and later asking them to make district magistrates and senior superintendents of police "personally responsible" for maintaining law and order.

H. Raja, the BJP national general secretary from Tamil Nadu whose Facebook page carried an inflammatory post that was seen as the trigger for the vandalism in the state, blamed his social media administrator and expressed regret. The BJP expelled a vandal who targeted the Periyar bust in Tamil Nadu.

Asked whether the party will take action against Raja, PTI quoted BJP chief Shah as saying: "No, we will not."

Lenin's theory does have its use.