Reportedly yoga teacher and businessman baba Ramdev has kicked up a controversy by saying that if periyar was around in his time, he would have had shoes slapped on him. Meanwhile this is Ramdev’s third comment about periyar that has created a controversy in one week and in a statement on monday, DMK leader stalin condemned this attack on Periyar.
Furthermore in a video that surfaced on monday, Ramdev says, “For the past two-three days, Periyar’s ‘chele’ (followers) have been behind me. Now I say, this periyar put shoe garlands for gods and goddesses, he slaps ram and krishna with shoes. Now he’s not alive. But if in my time periyar was around, there would be so many shoes slapped on him, he wouldn’t have escaped alive. But I wasn’t there back then, what to do?” Further this comes just a week after the yoga teacher coined the term ‘ideological terror’ in his recent speeches and television appearances. In an interview with journalist Arnab Goswami, the founder of Republic tv, a day after the ayodhya judgment, the saffron clad yoga teacher was indulging in a takedown of AIMIM mp asaduddin owaisi, when he coined the term ‘ideological terrorism’ in connection with periyar and Ambedkar’s followers.
Moreover Ramdev’s comments have prompted several people to call for his arrest, and for the boycott of his company, Patanjali. When taking to twitter, DMK chief MK stalin said, “I strongly condemn this targeted attack on periyar and our ideology by right-wing forces. periyar fought for the downtrodden classes. He voiced the rights of women. He spoke against the caste system. The DMK will defend the Dravidian ideology against all such oppressive forces.”
