Upping the ante in the ideological fight against the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK), Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Annamalai announced that the first thing the party would do after coming to power would be to remove the statues, flags and plaques mocking Hindu faith placed outside temples. 

Many plaques bearing the slogan ‘Those who believe in God are fools; they are cheated; so no one should believe in God’, were put up since 1967 when DMK first came to power. 

Annamalai made this clarion call while addressing a well-attended gathering from a stage erected between the Raja Gopuram of the famous Vaishnavite temple and the statue of E.V Ramaswamy Naicker in the historic temple town of Srirangam on Tuesday (7 November). Annamalai is crisscrossing the state as part of the ‘En Mann En Makkal‘ padayatra.

He said that it was shameful that DMK was portraying the provocative act of putting up these statues, flags and plaques as an ‘achievement’. 

It is to the credit of the peaceful Hindus in the state for having tolerated the same, he added.

Without naming Dravidian ideologue EV Ramasamy Naicker, whose statue is placed outside the Srirangam temple, he stated that statues of those who said that those who believe in God were fools would be removed and the BJP would put up statues of Alwars, Nayanars, (Tamil Shaivite and Vaishnava saints), Tamil poets like Tiruvalluvar and Tamil freedom fighters.

A life-size bronze statue of Ramasamy Naicker was installed near Srirangam Ranganathar temple by Dravida Kazhagam (DK) General Secretary K Veeramani in 2006.

Criticising other parties, he said that while they claimed to be saviours/friends of Hindus and act as if they have bhakti, they would never declare that they would remove such boards and that all of them were responsible for the decline of Sanatana Dharma in the state in the last 70 years.

He added that just like the removal of the above-mentioned boards as soon as the party comes to power, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HRCE) department would also be abolished.

“The last day of the HRCE department would be the first day of the BJP government coming to power,” he said.

Continuing his speech, he said that just like the Jambudweep Proclamation issued in Srirangam by the Marudu brothers in 1801, this should be considered the ‘En Mann En Makkal’ proclamation.