Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan on Wednesday hit out at the Central government over the vandalizing of the Periyar statue in Vellore.
Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan on Wednesday hit out at the Central government over the vandalizing of the Periyar statue in Vellore.
Addressing a press conference, he said, “There is no need to deploy police to protect the Periyar statue in Coimbatore. We Tamilians will protect it,” he said, alleging that this issue had been raised to divert attention from the formation of the Cauvery management board.
He also hit out at BJP leader H Raja, whose controversial Facebook post, encouraging people to vandalise Periyar statues soon after a statue of Lenin was damaged in Tripura raised criticism. “H Raja has expressed regret. This is not enough. He has to apologise, as he has come out with a lame excuse which cannot be accepted. Taking action against him would be the right course of action. However, I am doubtful whether the BJP would do it,” the actor added.
Earlier, Raja had denied that he ever wrote the post, saying that it was done by an admin without his permission. “The post on my Facebook page was done by one of the administrators without my permission. As soon as I came to know about it, I deleted the post. We have to respond through statements and opinions not through violence. It is not correct to deface statue of Periyar,” he told ANI.
Meanwhile, the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit today sacked the party functionary responsible for violating Periyar’s statue.
"R Muthuraman is being expelled from the party," BJP state chief Tamilisai Soundarrajan said in a brief statement.
Muthuraman was one of the two persons arrested by police for allegedly vandalising a bust-size statue of Ramasamy, in an inebriated condition the other was identified as Francis.
Meanwhile, the CPI said Francis is not a party activist.
Francis was not a member of the party nor was he connected to it, CPI state unit secretary R Mutharasan said.
Police on Tuesday said that Muthuraman was suspected to be a BJP worker and Francis was believed to be a CPI activist.
The two allegedly vandalised a statue of Ramasamy in an inebriated state.
The incident follows a row over comments made by BJP leader H Raja indicating that statues of Ramasamy could be the next to be pulled down after two statues of communist icon Vladimir Lenin was razed in Tripura.
As the remarks in a Facebook post against Ramasamy, the founder of the Dravidian movement, drew condemnation from several political parties in the state, Raja deleted it.
BJP's state unit has distanced itself from the issue, saying it was Raja's view. P
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