Plea seeking removal of Periyar statue slogans dismissed

Chennai: Observing that the Dravidar Kazhagam has every right under the Constitution of India to fight for social justice in eradicating inequality, right for upliftment of women and downtrodden people, express views on religion and existence of God, the Madras high court has dismissed a petition, which sought a direction to the state government, to remove all the inscriptions below the statue of Thanthai Periyar erected all over the state of Tamil Nadu, allegedly having offensive language and against the Universal God.

A division bench comprising Justices S.Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad dismissed the Public Interest Litigation filed by M.Deivanayagam.

According to petitioner, after the demise of Periyar, in the statue installed at Trichy, below the statue, the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) has inscribed “There is no God, God does not exist, one who created God is a fool, one who has propagated God is a scoundrel and one who worships God is barbaric”. The DK party is attacking the Universal God in general. The petitioner is a strong rationalist who has expressed the enjoyment of the existence of Universal God, who governs the Universe, and is offended, by the action of the DK, he added.

The bench said, “Going through the material and record and in the light of the Lalai Singh Yadav’s case, we accept the contention of the DK that the petitioner cannot by a writ of mandamus, restrict the fundamental rights, freedom of expression as considered by the Supreme Court in Lalai Singh Yadav’s case, which is not only binding, but to be applied in matters, where disputes on violation of the Constitutional rights under Article 19 is alleged. The DK party has been founded on the propagation of self respect, humanism. We are of the view that it is an undisputed facts that Thanthai Periyar, in all his speeches, publications from 1928 had declared that there is no God, God does not exist, one who has created is a fool”, the bench added.

The bench said on propagation of philosophy of self respect, social reform, ending caste system, equal rights and Thanthai Periyar’s vision to establish a society of brotherhood could be deciphered, and according to Thanthai Periyar, belief of God, was the sole reason for the inequalities in the society. Speeches and expression from 1928 makes it clear, without any iota of hesitation, one can clearly come to the conclusion that it was Thanthai Periyar’s philosophy and ideology, which became a self respect movement and later on, a party. Contention of the petitioner that everything was done by the DK, only after the demise of Thanthai Periyar, was contrary to the facts and cannot be accepted, the bench added.

The bench said reading of the materials reflect Thanthai Periyar’s thought and expression on God, Religion, Caste and such other issues. Thanthai Periyar was known for Atheism. Contention of the petitioner that Thanthai Periyar did not advocate that there was no God and only the DK was doing the same, was contrary to the views expressed by Thanthai Periyar, was wholly acceptable, as the speeches and writing of Thanthai Periyar were explicit in the enclosures. Therefore, the contention of the petitioner that only after the demise of Thanthai Periyar on December 18, 1973, the DK started propagating atheism as the principle of Thanthai Periyar and started to erect statues having the inscriptions was not correct.