Superstar Rajinikanth has refused to apologise over his controversial remark against ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy, founder of Dravidar Kazhagam.
The actor refused to express regret or apologize over his speech at Thuglak magazine’s 50th-anniversary event in Chennai on January 15.
According to Rajinikanth, Periyar had held an anti-superstition rally in 1971 in which naked pictures of Lord Ramachandramoorthy and Sita were displayed and no news outlet published it.
Making a point about Cho Ramaswamy, editor of Thuglak, who was the only one to publish them, while the then DMK government seized copies of the magazine, Rajinikanth cited evidence to support his claim.
Accused of ‘defaming” Periyar by a police complaint filed by a Dravidian outfit, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, protestors gathered outside his residence on Tuesday.
Rajinikanth came out of his house with copies of news clippings, reportedly, and said that he did not make things about Periyar’s rally.
“I did not make up what I said, there are even published stories in media on it, I can show them. I will not apologise,” a Hindustan Times report quoted him as saying.
“A controversy has emerged that I said something that did not happen. But I did not say anything that did not occur. I only said what I heard and things that appeared in magazines, I did not say anything out of imagination or something that was not there. Lakshmanan (then Jan Sangh and now BJP leader) who took part in a dharna (in 1971) has corroborated it,” he further stated.
Rajinikanth’s political debut is expected before the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2021.