Periyar issue: Rajini sticks to his gun, says he won’t apologise for his remarks

NE NEWS SERVICE

CHENNAI, JAN 21

Super Star Rajinikanth categorically said here on Tuesday that he will neither apologise nor express regret for his remark on social reformer Periyar E. V. Ramasamy at Thuglak magazine’s 50th-anniversary event in Chennai on January 14.

While addressing at Thuglak’s 50^th-anniversary, Rajinikanth had said that Periyar has held an anti-superstition rally in which naked pictures of Lord Ram and Sita were paraded in public and garlanded with slippers.

The fringe organisations such as Dravidar Kazhagam, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, and Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam had objected to the speech on the basis that it was factually incorrect. TPDK general secretary Kovai Ramakrishnan had said that the actor must apologise for his speech or face protests.

Speaking to reporters, Rajinikanth showed clippings of a 2017 report in an English magazine mentioning Periyar’s 1971 rally supposedly published to bolster his claim.

“The magazine has reported that Ramar and Sita were paraded naked and garlanded with slippers in Periyar’s rally in 1971 in Salem. I have not said something that did not happen. I have not imagined it. The one who protested there in Salem….Lakshmana…has confirmed it. So, I will not apologise or express regret,” said Rajinikanth, adding that he has only expressed what has been reported in magazines. He further said that Periyar’s rally must be forgotten, not denied.

Rajini must think and speak, says Stalin

Meanwhile, the DMK president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday said Rajinikanth must think and speak about social reformer and Dravidar Kazhagam founder Periyar E V Ramasamy.

At a media interaction, a journalist asked Stalin about the actor stating that he would not apologise for certain comments he had made about an anti-superstition rally in Salem in 1971 in which Periyar participated at the golden jubilee meet of Tamil magazine Thuglak. Responding, the DMK leader said, “Rajinikanth is not a politician. He is an actor. I have an advice for him – when you talk about Periyar, who fought for almost 95 years for the Tamil people, he should think and speak.”