A CRPF jawan was arrested for vandalising the statue of Dravidian ideologue ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy, in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district. The head of the statue was torn apart on Tuesday, 20 March, and was reinstated a few hours later.
Senthil Kumar, the jawan, has been placed under suspension and the CRPF said he is under treatment for Schizophrenia and was on a 30-day leave when the incident happened, ANI reported on Wednesday.
“All of the statues of Periyar must be given due protection across Tamil Nadu,” DMK’s working president MK Stalin reportedly said after the vandalism.
Actor turned politician Rajinikanth condemned the vandalism, calling it an “act of barbarism.”
Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted saying that by destroying the statue of Lenin in Tripura, the BJP “signalled their cadres to destroy statues of those who opposed their ideology.”
Earlier in March, another statue of Periyar was vandalised in Vellore. Two men, one of them a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker, was arrested in connection with the attack.
Not Just Tamil Nadu
BJP national secretary H Raja, in a Facebook post, had said, "Who is Lenin? What is his connection to India? What is the connection of communists to India? Lenin's statue was destroyed in Tripura. Today Lenin's statue, tomorrow Tamil Nadu's EVR Ramaswami's statue,” allegedly triggering the attack.
Hours after the Assembly election results of Tripura were announced on 3 March, a statue of the communist icon Vladimir Lenin was bulldozed by a group of right wing supporters in the state’s Belonia town, triggering a series of attacks on statues of political leaders.
Statues across India, including those of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi were also vandalised.
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