Click to play videoChennai: The serene temple town of Srirangam on the banks of Cauvery river is in the eye of a gathering storm. It was here that four activists of a right-wing Hindu organisation - the Hindu Makkal Katchi - allegedly defaced the statue of Dravidar Kazhagam founder Periyar EV Ramasawamy Naicker on Thursday.
In the protests that followed, Periyar loyalists attacked temples and Hindu mutts in the state. They and even threw petrol bombs at a temple in Chennai. This lead to an open war between Periyar's followers and the Hindutva brigade.
"Not all Brahmins are against Periyar. It is the RSS and BJP-backed outfits which are against Periyar," says K Veeramani, a leader of Dravidar Kazhagam.
Even as tension continues in Srirangam, the irony is that the conflict has arisen over the statue of a leader, who was always opposed all forms of idol worship.
For the Hindutva lobby, this was exactly what they wanted.
The decision to place the statue of an atheist leader like Periyar so close to the Lord Ranganathaswamy temple has given them enough ammunition to further their ideology.
"Why do we have a Periyar statue in front of a temple? What is the need? It is only to hurt the sentiments of the Hindus," B Kumaravelu, Vice-President of Kerala unit of the BJP, claims.
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