‘Goondas wearing BJP shawls vandalised Thiruvalluvar’s statue’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A massive protest was carried out by the members of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Thursday after the recently constructed platform under Thiruvalluvar’s statue in Ulsoor was found demolished.

The Thiruvalluvar’s statue turned into a political battleground on Tuesday after several BJP members, along with a few locals, started alleging that the platform constructed beneath the statue was a political agenda by the Congress party to hide the name of BS Yediyurappa, who had unveiled the structure in 2009.

The BJP members also accused the local MLA of building the platform beneath the statue as part of his alleged plan to demolish the structure. To this, the Congress members replied that they were renovating and beautifying the spot without harming the statue.

However, the platform under the structure was found damaged on Thursday. The KPCC members, including Congress leaders including Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad and AICC, Tamil Nadu, Dinesh Gundu Rao accused the BJP workers of vandalising the structure.

Police personnel was deployed at the protest site to avoid any untoward incident. “This is not an allegation. I have the evidence and photos of where several goondas wearing BJP shawls vandalised the platform with the help of a JCB.

The platform was built as an initial part of the beautification work to honour the great saint Thiruvalluvar. This is an assault on democracy,” Rizwan Arshad said. Further, the Congress members demanded that the BJP government apologise for the incident and register appropriate cases against those involved in vandalising the structure.