Tiruvalluvar statue desecrated
Tension prevailed at Pillaiyarpatti village near Thanjavur on Monday following desecration of a statue of Tamil saint-poet Tiruvalluvar there by some miscreants who wrapped its eyes with black cloth, and smeared its face with cow dung and black liquid on Sunday night.
People of Tiruvalluvar Nagar where the statue is located woke up on Monday morning only to see a disfigured statue to their shock. They immediately informed Tamil University police, who rushed to the spot, cleaned it and adorned it with a garland.
People in the area staged a demonstration condemning the incident and demanded the arrest of the miscreants immediately.
The cement statue was installed in 2005 with the efforts by Thenninthiya Valluvar Sangam and residents of Thiruvalluvar street. The then district collector of Thanjavur Veera Shanmugha Moni had unveiled the statue.
“We, people in this area, garland the statue on Tiruvalluvar Day every year. We hold the saint in high esteem, who is above caste, creed, colour, religion and countries. He belongs to the whole world and his Tirukkural is considered as a book for the humanity. It is unfortunate that such disgrace was done to the saint’s statue and those who did it should be arrested immediately and punished. We should not impose caste or religion on him. He belongs to humanity,” a cross-section of people on Tiruvalluvar street said.
Students of Tamil University staged a demonstration near the campus condemning the incident. P. Maniarasan of Thamizh Desiya Periyakkam condemned the incident. He said that saint Tiruvalluvar belonged to the whole world and that was why his ‘Tirukkural’ was translated in large number of languages.