Petrol Bombs Hurled at BJP Office in Coimbatore Hours After Vandals Damaged Periyar Statue

New Delhi: The BJP office in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore was attacked with petrol bombs on Tuesday night. This incident could be a retaliation to the vandalisation of a Periyar statue in Vellore.

Police said no one has been injured in the Coimbatore incident. CCTV footage shows some men hurling petrol bombs at the BJP office.

On Tuesday evening, a statue of anti-untouchability activist and Dravidian movement leader EV Ramasamy, commonly known as Periyar, was vandalised by two men in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district.

Earlier in the day, two statues of Lenin were razed in Tripura.

According to police, the glasses and the nose of the statue inside Tirupathur Corporation Office were damaged by the vandals around 9pm.

Police identified the arrested as Muthuraman and Francis. While Muthuraman is suspected to be a BJP worker, Francis is believed to be a CPI activist, police said.

The vandalism attempt came hours after senior BJP leader H Raja said Periyar was "casteist" and called for the reformist's statue to be "destroyed" in a Facebook post. He deleted the post after facing the backlash.

“Who is Lenin? What is the relevance he holds in India? What is the link between communalism and India? Lenin’s statues were destroyed in Tripura, tomorrow, in Tamil Nadu, casteist Periyar’s statues will be destroyed," wrote Raja.

The Facebook post was in reference to the incident in south Tripura, where alleged BJP supporters used a JCB to bring down a statue of communist revolutionary Lenin on Monday, two days after the party won the assembly elections in the state. On Tuesday, another Lenin statue was razed to the ground.

The Periyar reference in Raja’s post was heavily criticised online, following which, the leader took it down. He has reportedly said that someone else had inadvertently posted it on his page.

Defending Raja, BJP spokesperson Narayanan Tirupathi said, “More than 99.9% of the people in Tamil Nadu are spiritual. EVR’s statue carries the message that whoever worships God are barbarians, whoever preaches God are rascals and whosoever keep faith in God are fools. Hindu outfits have for long demanded the removal of these statues but this has not been done till date. Hence, H Raja’s outburst. The words may have been harsh but the intention is keeping in mind the majority of the population."