Appeal to T N Governor to effect shifting of Periyar statue

Chennai, Dec 18 (UNI) Representatives of various Hindu organisations and Bharathiya Janata Party today appealed to the Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Sing Barnala to shift the recently installed statue of Periyar E V R to any place from the vicinity of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple Srirangam, as it hurts the religious sentiments of lakhs of Hindu devotees.

The representatives included leaders from R S S, Viswa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Munnani, Bharathiya Mazdur Sangh and Akhila Bharath Vidhyarthi Parishad.

In their representation to Mr Barnala, they pointed out that the deity of Lord Sri Ranganatha is being taken out in procession several times a year to river Cauvery for performing traditional temple rites. These occasions might be misused by the anti-socials to harass and ridicule the sentiments of thousands of devotees.

They were not against Periyar E V R statue installation per se, they pointed out.

They also wanted adequate compensation be expeditiously paid by the government to victims of last week's attack by groups surprisingly claiming to be ''followers of Periyar E V R's ideology''.

They also wanted that recurrence of such blatant wounding of the religious belief of majority community in the state is prevented by effective steps by authorities.

While they condemned the act of vandalism in which the Periyar E V R statue installed in Srirangam was damaged recently, they also decried the retaliatory vandalism that the state witnessed late last week, in which idols of places of worship were broken in many places including Erode, Chengam and Sankarapuram, salem, Villupuram, and Chennai, which was widely reported in the media.

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