In the wee hours of, August 7 night, 2023, a team of Revenue officials led by Aruppukottai Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Sivakumar and Tehasildar Baskaran forcibly opened the gate of the BJP office located in the Virudhunagar district. They proceeded to remove a statue of Bharat Mata. This action was initiated in response to a complaint that the statue had been placed there without obtaining the necessary permission. The Revenue officials questioned the installation of the statue without obtaining permission from the authorities.
The BJP Virudhunagar district headquarters, designed to be a comprehensive facility, was opened recently along with the Virudhunagar-Madurai-Kanyakumari National Highway, in close proximity to the district collector’s office. During a previous visit to Tamil Nadu by the national party president, JP Nadda, earlier this year had inaugurated the same.
As part of completing remaining construction tasks and addressing pending interior work, local BJP members made the decision to install the Bharat Mata statue ahead of the upcoming ‘En Mann, En Makkal’ padayatra led by Tamil Nadu BJP State president K Annamalai, which is scheduled to enter the district between August 9 2023 and August 11 2023.
Video of police officer jumping over the wall to unlock the gate surfaces
A video of a police officer jumping over the wall to unlock the gates from inside to allow other officials to enter and subsequently removing the statue of Bharat Mata at BJP office in Virudhunagar has been circulating on social media.
BJP cadre throng the place, raise objection
On hearing the incident, BJP cadres thronged the place and raised an objection claiming that they required no permission as the statue was installed on a private pata land. The officials left the place in the night , returned post midnight with police and removed the statue. The revenue officials took it to Virudhunagar Taluk office.
BJP leaders said “an agreement was reached to request official permission today. However, in the late hours of the previous night, more than 100 Tamil Nadu police personnel arrived at the location, forcibly entered the premises, and removed the statue. The statue was then transported to the Tahsildar’s office”.
State BJP President, Annamalai, came down heavily on the authorities for removing the statue saying their action was condemnable. He said that police scaled the compound wall to remove the statue and the situation under the “ Corrupt DMK government was such that there was no freedom to erect a statue for “Bharat Mata’ even within the private property of the party.
Annamalai in a tweet said “Under the current corrupt DMK regime in Tamil Nadu, there is no right even to install a statue of Bharat Mata in a place owned by a party. This move is a manifestation of the two ministers from this district who are at the height of fear as they are exposing the woes of the corrupt DMK government to the people through our #EnMannEnMakkal yatra.”
Police and revenue officials informed BJP leaders that prior permission should be obtained as per existing rules for erecting any statue even inside private property.
BJP national joint in charge of the BJP P Sudhakar Reddy said it was illegal to break into the locked premises to remove the statue. He said they could have waited till morning or during day time to remove the same. What was the urgency to remove during the wee hours? , he questioned. He said the statue was removed just as Annamalai’s En Mann En Makkal yatra was about to enter the district. The action of the DMK Government, he said, showed that it was afraid of the yatra.
DMK Ministers Thangam Thennarasu and KKSSR Ramachandran hail from the Virudhunagar district that Annamalai will be visiting as a part of his yatra.
People ask “When it allows statue of foreign icons of align ideologies or DMK leader Karunanidhi or Ramaswamy Naicker or Annadurai in every nook and corner of the state what was wrong in the maa of the nation in a private place”.
In May 2020, Christians of the Church of South India (CSI), filed an objection over the statue of Bharat Mata with Kanyakumari police claiming that the statue was hurting their “religious sentiments”. After their complaint, the Kanyakumari Police had covered the statue, causing outrage amongst the villagers. The protest was spearheaded by BJP leader Tarun Vijay , BJP, Hindu Munnani, RSS and local villagers , who later took to Twitter after the Collector’s passed an order to restore the statue of Bharat Mata to its former status.
The Bharat Mata statue was situated on the premises of Issaki Amman temple, which is reportedly 200 years old. The site is private property. The owner had installed a statue of Bharat Mata and had embellished it with a tri-colour saree. Advocate Ashutosh J Dubey issued a legal notice to police for covering the Bharat Mata statue. He had also questioned under which constitutional provision the statue of Bharat Mata was covered. Advocate Dubey also claimed that the police had arrested protesters who had uncovered the Bharat Mata statue after the police had concealed it.
In Tamil Nadu the Dravida Model government has zero tolerance for growth of BJP and sangh parivar who question its corrupt and minority appeasement policies. Recently it suspended a police inspector for an audio clip and transferred one who removed controversial anti national banners from a book fair site. TN assembly Speaker M Appavu who made controversial statement was sparred.
In a viral video ( in July last) that went viral on social media, Appavu openly admits that the DMK came to power because of the ‘fasting’ and support of Roman Catholic Christians and that Chief Minister MK Stalin acknowledges that the DMK government was installed with the help of Christians.
“I frequently tell this. This is ‘your’ government. A government that has been formed by ‘you’. A government that has been formed because of your ‘fasting’. A government that has been brought by your prayers and wishes to the Lord. This is a government for ‘you’.” the DMK MLA said while addressing a gathering of Catholic Christians on the occasion of St. Paul’s Seminary held in Trichy on June 29, 2022.
He further added that Christianity and Christian priests were the root causes for the formation of the DMK government which talks about ‘social justice’ and ‘Dravida Model’. “I’ve already told this to the pastors many times. You don’t have to expect anyone. You can decide among yourselves and figure out the problems that you face and and bring it to the atttention of our Chief Minister. He won’t reject it all because he knows very well that this government was formed by you. So, this is ‘your’ government. He is ‘your’ Chief Minister. “If not for the reverand ‘fathers’, ‘sisters’, and ‘brothers’, Tamil Nadu would’ve remained like Bihar. If Tamil Nadu and Kerala stands high in the country today, the credit should go to Christians especially Catholic Christians priests. That is the actual truth.”Is it secular for DMK ? Why no action was taken against him. Like him, CM MK Stalin, his and minister Udhaya nidhi Stalin, DMK MP A Raja . TN minister Mahesh Anbil Poyyamozhi and others made pro Christian statements are gross violations and in contravention to the oath they had taken at the time of assuming office.
