Periyar statue desecration: Tamil Nadu responds in one voice to BJP

Close on the heels of a victory in Tripura—a Left bastion for over two decades—the BJP perhaps thought it fit to test the waters in Tamil Nadu. This is not entirely new. Soon after the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2016, the BJP began to fish in troubled waters and hoped this would help consolidate its position in the state. Dissatisfied with its 2% share of TN votes, the BJP left no stone unturned in trying to establish roots in Tamil Nadu.

Yet when the party’s national secretary H Raja shared a photo of destruction of communist icon Lenin’s statue in Tripura and said Periyar statues in Tamil Nadu too will be similarly destroyed, all hell broke loose. This is not the first time Raja had unleashed a verbal assault on Periyar aka EV Ramasamy—Tamil Nadu’s most important leader and social reformist. This is not the first time he has put his foot in his mouth either.

His official position notwithstanding, H Raja’s social media accounts have often paraded lies. From actor Vijay’s Mersal movie to lyricist Vairamuthu’s views on Aandal, Raja has never missed any opportunity to stoke controversies. After hearing of a dialogue criticisng GST in Mersal, H Raja went to town about actor Vijay being a Christian—he had even released the actor’s identity card on social media—and sought to make it a communal issue.

When Vairamuthu presented a paper on Aandal—an eighth century Bhakthi poet—in which he quotes a researcher and says Aandal could have been a Devadasi, H Raja was among the first to respond. A barrage of protests followed, demanding that Vairamuthu tender an apology at Srivilliputhur in southern Tamil Nadu, where there is a temple of Aandal. While expressing regret over his views being misconstrued, Vairamuthu stood his ground and had steadfastly refused to entertain any other demand. Enthused by the protests against Vairamuthu, BJP’s state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan declared that Tamil Nadu was no longer the soil of Periyar but it was the soil of Periyazhvar (a Vaishnavaite Poet who discovered Aandal near a Tulasi plant and brought her up). “The Tamil was not nurtured by Anna (former CM and DMK founder CN Annadurai) but by Aandal,” she declared.

It only took a few weeks to establish whose soil it really was. H Raja had inadvertently opened a Pandora’s box when he posted that ‘EVR’s statues would be brought down’. On the same evening, a Periyar statue in Tiruppathur near Vellore was broken by two miscreants—one of whom was from the BJP. Tamil Nadu responded in one voice to Raja’s post and to the incident. DMK’s working president MK Stalin dared Raja to ‘touch Periyar statue.’ Almost every party leader in Tamil Nadu condemned Raja’s social media post and the Tiruppathur incident. Actor Kamal Hassan said Raja should tender an apology and called the controversy an attempt to divert the Cauvery issue, while Rajinikanth termed it as barbaric but appealed to people to allow the controversy to rest since Raja had already expressed regret.

Sensing that the controversy was actually squandering whatever minuscule opportunity the BJP had in the state, the party swung into damage control mode. While Tamilisai distanced herself and the state party unit from Raja’s views, Raja himself said the post was uploaded by his social media admin without his knowledge and tendered a ‘heartfelt’ regret. Meanwhile the protests continue against Raja even as TN Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam said it was absurd that Raja blamed his admin for the post.

Over 40 years after his death, that Periyar continues to singularly influence Tamil society like no other leader speaks volumes about his contribution as a reformist and a politician. Periyar was a radical in every sense. He was conferred the title ‘Periyar’ at a Women’s Conference in 1938 for his works on emancipation of women. “Our leader EV Ramasamy has been doing the kind of work which no other social reformer in India has been able to do. There is no one in South India to place on par or above him. So this conference urges everyone to use the term ‘Periyar’ to address him when speaking or writing” the resolution read. Earlier in 1937, Periyar was arrested in connection with anti-Hindi agitations and one of the accusations against him was he influenced women to struggle. His views on feminism were so radical that the West could catch up with him only decades later.

To Periyar, Tamil Nadu owes its legacy of rationalism and self-respect—something that has helped keep the divisive forces at bay.

Also read: A war on statues is silly but also dangerous