A Periyarist, Communist, Ambedkarite rally in Tamil Nadu abused Hindu deities Amman, Krishna and Ayyappa. Communists and other political allies of DMK participated in the rally where Hindu practice of piercing body parts as penance was also mocked.
In a ‘Red Shirt Rally’ organised by Communists and Periyarists in Madurai, TN, Hindu deities were denigrated in the name of rationality. In a video shared by Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam on Twitter, Periyarists wearing red shirts can be heard abusing Hindu deities and traditions. Saminathan, Namakkal district chief of the organisation led the rally wth slogans of, “Is Maari who asks for sacrificial goats and pigs a god? Is Kanna who raped women a god? Can intercourse between men produce a child? Is calling Ayyapan a god rational?”.
They also mocked the tradition of piercing body parts using spear, the divine weapon of Skanda in penance, a prevalent practice across TN. “Hey you who comes dancing piercing your body, Why don’t you pierce it through your chest once? Hey you devotee who comes dancing piercing your jaw. Why don’t you try piercing your throat once. Hey you devotee who comes walking with piercings in the tongue.. Why don’t you pierce it through your eyes once?” they shouted during the rally.
Ironically, despite claiming to be atheists and rationalists they called EV Ramasamy as ” Periyar the white bearded king who espoused the (above) teachings”. It should be noted that despite mocking Hindus for offering flowers, food, etc to their deities, Periyarists do the same to the statue of EV Ramasamy.
DMK pliant Tamil media reported it as a rally against Hindutva where atheist slogans were raised to “spread rationalism” and create awareness about the “origin of Hindu gods”. The News Minute, which also reported about the event didn’t even make a peep about the hateful, sacrilegious slogans raised in the rally. If someone had raised similar slogans about prophets of other religions, or about Christian mythology like Jesus’ virgin birth and resurrection after death, or parting of Red Sea, violence would have broken out and outrage would have reverberated around the world.
CPI-M leader Ramakrishnan, Madurai Communist MP Su Venkatesan, Periyarist organisations and DMK ally VCK participated in the rally. Su Venkatesan and Chidambaram MP Thirumavalavan are said to have presided over the event. Only a few days ago CPI state secretary Mutharasan said to the media that he is a Hindu and that CM Stalin is also a Hindu. He said that they are only against Hindutva which is trying to impose ‘Manu dharma’ on them and not anti-Hindu.
Hindu organisations have filed a complaint with Madurai police against Periyarists who raised the abusive slogans. At a time when Nupur Sharma is threatened with murder and rape for merely quoting Islamic scriptures, apart from booking them for hurting religious sentiments no action has been taken against the Periyarists.
