Most Indians who have heard of these two personages likely know them in the context of Periyar the Wildlife Sancturary and Lenin as the leader of the erstwhile USSR after whom St Petersburg was renamed (before being restored to the original name). Now however much of India knows about who these men were, their ideologies and what they represented.
After 25 years of rule by the communist party in Tripura, the BJP won the legislative assembly. Violent clashes between party cadres broke out soon after results were announced. In Belonia, BJP supporters used a bulldozer to raze the statue of communist icon Lenin.
The Governor of Tripura described this as an “undoing” of “What one democratically elected government” had done by “another democratically elected government”. He later tweeted this: “I am advised that pulling down statues (Lenin's or anyone else's) unless done by lawfully empowered authorities, qualify as 'Mischief' under Indian Penal Code.” It would appear that the Governor of a state was unaware that vandalism is against the law.
Tamil Nadu BJP leader H Raja posted on social media about the incident, questioning the relevance of Lenin and communism in India. He also said that like Lenin’s statue in Tripura, the statue of E V R Ramasamy or Periyar would also be razed, describing the social reformer as a ‘caste fanatic’. He deleted the tweet later however and blamed Facebook admin for publishing it.
He was a social activist from Erode (then in the Madras Presidency) who worked against caste discrimination and Brahminical oppression for most of his life. He advocated eradication of caste, concepts such as women's rights, rationalism and self respect. He joined the Indian National Congress but left it to form the Justice Party, which was later renamed the Dravidar Kazhagam.
Shortly after Raja’s post, BJP supporters also vandalized the statue of Periyar in Vellore, TN. BJP leaders spoke against the vandalism but by now a statue war of sorts had been initiated.
In a clear tit for tat action, the face of a statue of BJP icon Syama Prasad Mookherjee was also blackened in Kolkata.
Statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar were also vandalized following this. Reportedly a statue of Dr Ambedkar was also toppled in Uttar Pradesh.
The statue wars are a personification of the ideological wars that are ongoing all over the country. It is clear that the vandalism has followed the prevalent ruling party's ideology of the region where statues have been defaced or destroyed. But at this Twitterer says, stones can be broken; ideas can’t be.
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