Within a few hours of BJP leader H Raja’s social media post threatening to demolish statues of EM Ramasamy ‘Periyar’, two hooligans vandalised a statue of the social reformer, in Tirupattur in Vellore district.
The men identified as Mutharaman, a BJP worker and Francis, a CPI member, desecrated the statue at about 9pm on Tuesday night. Both, have since been arrested. Police say, both men were inebriated at the time of the incident. Mutharaman has been removed from the party as per state BJP Chief Tamilsai Soundararajan.
H Raja has since deleted his post, issuing a ghost of an apology, where he conveniently blames the administrator of the account, an unnamed member of his social media team, for the controversial post.
Meanwhile a statue of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherji was vandalised in Kolkata on Wednesday, allegedly by members of an ultra-Left students outfit. Police have arrested 6 members for the crime.
The statue wars were triggered after a statue of Communist leader Lenin was demolished in Tripura on Monday. Currently police personnel have been deployed at 27 Periyar statues across Tamil Nadu.
