Periyar statue vandalised in Vellore

A statue of social reformer and rationalist leader, popularly known as Periyar, was vandalised on Tuesday night in Tamil Nadu's Vellore district. The statue of Periyar, located inside the Tirupattur corporation office, was targeted around 9 p.m. The glasses and nose of the statue were damaged.

Two people have been arrested in this regard. One of them was identified as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker, the other person as a Communist Party of India (CPI) worker. Meanwhile, a petrol bomb was hurled at the BJP's office in Coimbatore by unidentified miscreants after Periyar statue was vandalised here.

It was in Tripura that the first incident of a statue being razed surfaced. Statue of communist icon Vladimir Lenin was razed after the BJP swept the Left front government out of power in the assembly elections. BJP leader H. Raja responded to the outrage with a Facebook post, which was later deleted. He wrote, 'Who is Lenin and what is the connection between Lenin and India? What connection has India with Communists? Lenin's statue has been removed in Tripura. Today it is Lenin's statue in Tripura, tomorrow it will be the statue of caste fanatic EVR Ramasamy'.

Reacting to Raja's post, many political parties including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), MDMK and the Left lashed out at Raja seeking his detention under the 'Goondas Act'. DMK working president M K Stalin was the first to react. He said 'No one can dare to touch EVR's statue'. In the meantime, a Periyar Statue in Coimbatore's is being guarded by Police personnel after the Vallore incident.

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