In a shocking development, two men vandalised a Periyar statue at a municipal corporation office in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore, hours after the BJP leader H Raja issued chilling threats through his Facebook post.
A report by NDTV said that the statue of Periyar, located inside the Tirupattur corporation office, was targeted around 9 pm. The glasses and nose of the statue too have been damaged. The men were caught by locals before they could cause more damage and handed over to the police.
Tamil Nadu BJP leader H Raja on Tuesday had threatened to demolish the statue of famous reformer, Periyar, after his party workers demolished Lenin’s statue in Tripura.
Raja took to Facebook to publish the controversial post, which read, “Who is Lenin? What is the relevance he holds in India? What is the link between communalism and India? Lenin’s statues were destroyed in Tripura, tomorrow, in Tamil Nadu, casteist Periyar’s statues will be destroyed.” His post, written in Tamil, also included the video of Lenin’s statue being brought down by a bulldozer in Belonia town in Tripura.
Periyar was a famous social reformer, who had launched the Self-Respect Movement and founded one of the first Dravidian political outfits, Dravidar Kazhagam.
A BJP mob had on Monday demolished the famous statue of Lenin in Tripura hours after the party won the state assembly polls ending the Left Front’s rule there. Several BJP leaders including Ram Madhav and Subramanian Swamy had rejoiced the demolition of the Lenin’s statue.