Rajinikanth Accused of Promoting Enmity, Warned With Protests After ‘Slipper’ Comment on Periyar

Chennai: Members of a Dravidian outfit on Friday accused superstar Rajinikanth of "uttering a blatant lie" about social reformer Periyar and filed a police complaint against the actor.

Nehrudas, president of the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DK) petitioned the Coimbatore police commissioner to register an FIR against Rajinikanth under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and 505 (intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public) of the Indian Penal Code.

While attending the 50th anniversary of 'Thuglak', a Tamil language weekly news magazine started by political commentator Cho Ramaswamy, Rajinikanth had stirred controversy by saying that Periyar in 1971 had taken out a procession after garlanding the photos of Ram and Sita with slippers.

The procession was taken out as part of a superstition eradication conference held in Salem, he said.

The comments have not gone down well with the DK, which has demanded an unconditional apology from Rajinikanth or warned they would 'gherao' his house and protest outside theatres where his latest film, 'Darbar', is being screened.

“During the Thuglak function on January 14, he (Rajinikanth) had levelled false allegations, not even a tiny bit of which is true. He is only doing this to enter politics. He is trying to disturb Dravidam and Periyar's movements,” Nehrudas told news agency ANI.

Rajinikanth at the event, also attended via video conferencing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said that Cho (Ramaswamy) had tried to publish the above mentioned instance in the Thuglak magazine, but the DMK had seized the published copies.

Rajinikanth is expected to make a foray into politics ahead of state Assembly elections scheduled next year.

At the anniversary event, another statement by the actor targeting the DMK mouthpiece Murasoli had led to controversy. “Readers of Murasoli are DMK workers but those who read Thuglak are intellectuals,” he had said at the event which was also attended by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.