Thevar statue adorned with gold armour amid high drama

MADURAI: The statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar was on Friday adorned with the 13-kg golden 'Kavacham' (armour), presented by the late Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, at the freedom-fighter-cum-spiritual leader's memorial in Pasumponn in Ramanathapuram district, to honour a practice in vogue since she had given it in 2014, after procedural hitches were removed. The 'Kavacham' was adorned on the statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar in the presence of Madurai collector Veera Raghava Rao, Ramanathapuram collector S Natarajan and AIADMK Ministers R B Uday-akumar and M Manikandan. Earlier, the Bank of India, Anna Nagar Branch, Madurai authorised the collector Rao to take the 'Kavacham' to Pasumponn while it had refused to accept the AIADMK deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam as the official Treasurer competent to receive the armour as per the tradition followed so far.

Though the two AIADMK factions headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Panneerselvam have patched up, and conveyed it the bank that Panneerselvam is the party Treasurer, the request from the AIADMK's sidelined leader TTV Dhinakaran that bank could not take a decision without considering their concerns, delayed things a bit.

On a day of high drama, within minutes after Panneerselvam and four AIADMK Ministers visited the bank along with Gandhi Meenal, legal heir of the Thevar family, to take possession of the 'Kavacham', Dhinakaran loyalist and former Melur MLA R. Samy rushed to the bank and submitted a copy of Dhin-akaran's letter to the bank chief manager Pon Damodaran.

He reiterated their position that 'Pasumpon Thevar Ninaivalayam ' represented by its caretaker alone, was authorised to sign the 'discharge safe custody receipt' and take the gold armour from the bank's safe custody, for the 'Thevar Jayanthi' festival from Saturday. As both the factions could not find an amicable settlement even after four hours of hard negotiation, the bank management has authorised the district collector Veeraraghava Rao to take custody of the armour, said a senior government officer. This decision was arrived at, taking into consideration the sentiment of the community which celebrates 'Thevar Jayanthi' for three days between October 28-30 at Pasumponn marking the birth and death anniversaries of Muthu-ramalinga Thevar, and also to ensure the law and order in the southern districts was not affected by this row, added the officer.

The legal heir, Tmt. Gandhi Meenal also gave a requisition letter addressed to the collector to receive the 'Kavacham', said an official source. The bank has asked the Madurai collector to deposit back the 'Kavacham' in the bank's locker on October 31, after the 'Thevar Jayanthi' festival. Till last year, Mr O. Panneerselvam, the undivided AIADMK treasurer, took possession of the armour along with the legal heir from the bank for the festival in Pasumponn. OPS' CLAIM: Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. O Panneerslevam claimed that they have requested the bank to hand over the armour to the district collector, taking into consideration the law and order issues. Denying it, MLA Samy, however, said that bank could not hand over the 'kavacham' to the legal heir only because Panneerslevam had refused to give a written undertaking for it.

Tension earlier prevailed before the bank, as supporters of Panneerselvam and Dhinakaran raised slogans against each other. However, Madurai city police effectively brought the situation under control.