Security around Sree Ranganatha Swamy temple in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchi district has been tightened following threats by Dravidar Kazhagam and other outfits like Makkal Adhikaram. The outfits have threatened to burn the Manusmriti and other Hindu Vedic texts in front of Sree Ranganatha Swamy temple, on the birth anniversary of social activist and Dravidian ideologue, E.V. Ramaswamy Periyar.
Notably, a Periyar statue was installed just in front of the Sree Ranganatha Swamy temple in Tiruchi by some Dalit outfits and Hindu organisations had come out in protest against this. As a counter to this, Makkal Adhikaram and Dravida Kazhagam have announced that they would take out protest marches towards the temple on the birth anniversary of Periyar.
Tamil Nadu state intelligence has informed the state police that there are possibilities of the burning of Manusmriti and other Vedic texts in front of the temple during the march, according to sources.
The Madurai bench of the Madras High court has directed the Tiruchi district administration to maintain the law and order situation in the district and in front of the temple on Saturday. The division bench comprising Justices R. Mahadevan and J. Sathyanarayana Prasad has also directed the police to consider the request of a Public Interest Litigation filed by an individual, Rangarajan Narasimhan to provide police protection to the devotees visiting the temple on Saturday.
The Additional Public Prosecutor has informed the court that a meeting was convened on September 8th with the representatives of Makkal Adhikaram and Dravidar Kazhagam and had asked them to drop the protest.
The district administration also informed the court that all the statues of Periyar in Tiruchi would be provided protection over the fear of desecration on his birth anniversary.
There have been several incidents in the past as well when workers of the Dravidar Kazhagam have burnt copies of the Manusmriti as a form of protest against the Caste system as well as discrimination against women. In fact, in February 2019, the Tiruchi police had arrested 72 workers of the party for burning copies of the Manusmriti.