Chennai, Jan 2 (BPNS)
Tamil Nadu police have commenced a probe into the desecration of a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at Neduvarambakkam village near Chennai. The statue was found damaged on Monday morning and local people intimated the police.
Sholayar police immediately reached the scene and commenced a probe.
However situation is tense at the Neduvarambakkam village and surrounding areas and a large number of people including Dalit activists have reached the spot in protest against the damaging of the statue of Dr. Ambedkar, the framer of Indian constitution and a champion for the Dalit rights in the country.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a Dalit political outfit has said that the party would conduct strong protest marches against the desecration of the statute of Dr. Ambedkar.
R. Sukumaran, leader of VCK while speaking to BPNS said, “ There has been a concerted effort to hurt the pride of the Dalit community and the destruction of the statute of Dr.B.R. Ambedkar is a clear indicator on where things are reaching. Dr. Ambedkar has been a leader who had clear-cut ideas on how to uplift the Dalit community and the destruction of his statue is a message to the Dalit community. We cannot sit and watch this and instead would undertake strong protests.”
It is to be noted that Tamil Nadu has several instances of caste-based violence and South Tamil Nadu is notorious on this. Recently in Vengayil village of the Pudukottai district of the state, the district collector and district superintendent of police had to forcibly make Dalits enter a local temple after the upper caste people objected to their entry. The area earned notoriety after an overhead water tank that supplies drinking water to a Dalit colony was found with human excreta. An investigation on the same led to the villagers complaining of temple entry ban for Dalit people, two tumbler system, and other blatant discriminations.
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