Day after Tamil Nadu's BJP unit tweets picture of Thiruvalluvar with saffron clothes, statue of poet found vandalised near Thanjavur

On Monday, a statue of  Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar was vandalised by some miscreants near Thanjavur, reported CNN-News18. The statue, located near a building owned by Pillayapatti Panchayat, was found blackened with the mud and a paper pasted covering the eyes. Tamil University police personnel rushed to the spot, cleaned the statue and garlanded it.Meanwhile, a group of Thiruvalluvar enthusiasts gathered near the statue and raised slogans condemning the desecration, demanding the arrest of those who vandalised the statue.DMK leader Kanimozhi condemned the event, saying "Thiruvalluvar is not just a statue. Valluvam is a living room. Valluvam will live even after the statue has disappeared."This comes a day after BJP came under fire for its tweeting out a picture of Tamil poet wearing a saffron shawl instead of the usual white, with holy ash smeared on his forehead on Sunday. Many Dravidian groups, political parties like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Communist Party of India (CPM) criticised the move with the hashtag of #BJPInsultsThiruvalluvar. The photo was tweeted with a caption that was picked up from a couplet from the book Thirukkural, which translates to: “What profit have those derived from learning, who worship not the good feet of him who is possessed of pure knowledge?” Reacting to the tweet, president of DMK, MK Stalin lashed out at the saffron party's attempts to saffronise Thiruvalluvar, calling it 'Tamil betrayal'.  Stalin told the BJP the colour would run off even if it was dyed several times. "Instead of dyeing, read Thirukkural and try to reform," Stalin responded.The BJP hit back at Stalin, by challenging him to recite any stanza from Thiruvalluvar’s couplets without mistake or retire from politics.According to the Indian Express, the CPM said in a statement, “Nobody in the past had ever tried to appropriate Thiruvalluvar for their political gains. The BJP trying to appropriate Thiruvalluvar by changing his dress should be strongly condemned.”The CPM and DMK were not alone, several others too reacted on Twitter to the alleged saffronisation of Thiruvalluvar with '#BJPInsultsThiruvalluvar' trending on the social media application nationwide.With inputs from agencies