Rajini Refuses To Apologise For His Recent Remark That Hindu Deities Were Defiled In A 1971 Periyar Rally

Refusing to apologise for comments against ‘Periyar’ E V Ramasamy, considered to be father of the Dravidian movement, Tamil actor Rajinikanth on Tuesday (21 January) said that his statement was not made up and was based on stories published in media.

“I did not make up what I said, there are even published stories in media on it, I can show them. I will not apologise,” Rajinikanth said on Tuesday, reports Hindustan Times.

Supporting his claim, Rajinikanth also showed clippings from magazines and newspapers, saying that idols of Lord Ram and Sita were taken out without dress in a rally led by Periyar in 1971.

“A controversy has emerged that I said something that did not happen. But I did not say anything that did not occur. I only said what I heard and things that appeared in magazines,” he said.

“I did not say anything out of imagination or something that was not there. Lakshmanan (then Jan Sangh and now BJP leader) who took part in a dharna (in 1971) has corroborated it,” he said.

Earlier this month, Rajinikanth had criticised Periyar at an event, accusing him of being a “pungent critic of Hindu gods”.

“In 1971, at Salem, Periyar took out a rally in which the undressed images of Lord Sriramachandramoorthy and Sita - with a garland of sandal - featured,” he had said.

“Periyar was a pungent critic of Hindu gods. But no one had criticised Periyar then,” the actor had said at the 50th anniversary celebration of Thuglak, a Tamil language weekly news magazine started by policial commentator Cho Ramaswamy.

Following this, a Dravidian outfit called Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam had accused the actor of “uttering a blatant lie” and demanded unconditional apology from him. The organisation also filed police complaints against the actor, seeking action on him.