Pudukottai: A political outrage broke out after a life-size statue E V Ramasamy – Periyar – was found vandalised at Aranthangi yesterday.
The Tamilnadu government and opposition parties together condemned the act and assured action against the culprits and officials have said steps were being taken to repair the statue.
According to media reports, the statue which is located near the government hospital in Aranthangi town was found lying on the ground with the head dislodged.
Periyar was a rationalist leader and Dravidian movement founder. A strong atheist, he was behind the self-respect movement in the state and founder of Dravidar Kazhagam, which is the parent organisation of the DMK.
Atate Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar stated that the act was not acceptable and action would be taken against the perpetrators.
“Not only should stern action be taken against whoever be the destructive forces which acted with the intention to disturb peace during election time, but they should be crushed with an iron fist.” tweeted DMK president M K Stalin.
Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) leader K Veeramani stated that Periyar statues were not mere stones, but an inspiration. Several political leaders in the state, including MDMK founder Vaiko and AMMK’s TTV Dhinakaran also condemned the incident.
While Vaiko stated that those who cannot break Periyar’s idealogy were behind damaging his statues, Dhinakaran said this incident was an attempt to derive political mileage by targeting Periyar statues at the time of election.