Actor Rajinikanth says, will not apologise for remark on Periyar rally amidst protest
Chennai, Jan 21: Days after a Dravidian outfit demanded an apology from him for his comments on a rally taken out by social reformer Periyar decades ago, Superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday asserted that he will neither express regret nor tender an apology and maintained that his remark was factual.
Showing clippings from magazines and newspapers, the top actor said the idols of Lord Ram and Sita were taken out without dress and the deities also featured a garland of sandals in a rally led by late Periyar E V Ramasamy 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.
Sorry, I will not express regret or apologise," he told reporters outside his Poes Garden residence.
Further, 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.
On the 1971 rally -in which Hindu deities were allegedly taken out naked- the actor said such things that happened in the past should not be raked up again and again.
"It was not a thing that can be (easily) forgotten but a thing that must be forgotten," he quipped.
On January 14, taking part in an event held here by Tamil magazine 'Thuglak' Rajinikanth alleged: "In 1971, at Salem, Periyar took out a rally in which the undressed images of Lord Sri Ramachandra Murthy and Sita -with a garland of sandal- featured ...."
A Dravidian outfit, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, however, accused the actor of "uttering a blatant lie" and demanded his unconditional apology and also filed police complaints seeking action against him.
DVK alleged that the actor uttered a "blatant lie that the images of Lord Ram and Sita were taken nude in a rally, held as part of a superstition eradication conference held in 1971 at Salem."
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Man sets fire to gas cylinder on truck in Kerala's Kottayam, held
Kottayam(Kerala) (PTI): A 33-year-old man climbed onto a parked truck carrying cooking gas cylinders and set fire to one of them near Thalayolaparambu in the small hours of Saturday, police said.
The incident occurred around 12.30 am, they said.
The fire and rescue personnel soon arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire, averting a major disaster.
According to police, the man is suspected to be under mental distress as he claimed that he was walking from Ernakulam to his home in Marangattupilly here when he saw the truck on the roadside.
An FIR under sections 329(3)(criminal trespass),324(2)(mischief),326(f)(mischief by injury, inundation, fire or explosive substance) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was lodged against him.
Police said that the man was formally arrested, but will be released on station bail as the offences he is accused of are bailable.
"His family is here at the station and he will be released to them," the officer said.
In the FIR, police have said that the man opened the seal of one of the gas cylinders and set fire to it with the knowledge that his act was dangerous to those living in the area.
According to the company transporting the cooking gas cylinders, it suffered a loss of Rs 2,300 in the incident.
