India News | AIADMK Says It Will Brook No Insult to Periyar, Anna; Slams Hindu Munnani for Video Clip

Chennai, Jun 24 (PTI) The AIADMK on Tuesday strongly condemned a Hindu Munnani video clip that allegedly showed Dravidian stalwarts 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy and CN Annadurai in poor light at the Lord Murugan devotees conference held in Madurai recently.

Former Minister and senior party leader R B Udhayakumar said AIADMK had always questioned and fought defamation or insult to Dravidian icons 'Periyar' and Annadurai.

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The insult may have originated from any place, but his party always opposes such criticism with courage and determination, he said and strongly condemned the video clip that allegedly depicted the Dravidian stalwarts in poor light.

Udhayakumar said he and others from his party took part in the event as devotees of Lord Muruga, on the basis of invitation from the Hindu Munnani.

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Allegedly, at the June 22 conference, the Hindu outfit, in its audio-visual presentation, had purportedly shown DMK founder Annadurai, reformist leader 'Periyar' Ramasamy and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi on the side of 'Adharma.'

The clip also claimed that Hindu Munnani was committed to protected 'Dharma.'

"The AIADMK has nothing to do with the resolutions passed in the meeting," Udhayakumar further said.

Creating a Hindu vote bank was one of the resolutions passed in the conference. The opposition MLA said that on the day of the event, at the venue, they did not have the opportunity to see the audio-visual presentation due to the seating arrangements.

Continuing his party's tirade against archrival AIADMK on this issue, DMK leader R S Bharathi slammed the Edappadi Palaniswami-led party for being "spectators to the insult" and said people and the entire state was incensed due to the affront to the Dravidian icons.

The state has no history of those insulting such icons gaining any political foothold in the state. Not only his party, but those with self-respect also oppose and condemn it, the DMK leader said.

The Munnani's tagline, for decades is "Dharmam kaakka, adharmam agatra," (to protect Dharma, to remove adharma). The promotional video clip also hailed Hindu Munnani as a "lion" that hunted down fake Dravidianism.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)