TN-RAJINIKANTH-APOLOGY

Will not apologise for remark on Periyar rally: Rajinikanth
Chennai, Jan 21 (PTI) Days after a Dravidian outfit
demanded an apology from him for his comments on a rally taken
out by social reformer Periyar decades ago, Superstar
Rajinikanth on Tuesday asserted that he will neither express
regret nor tender an apology and maintained that his remark
was factual.
Showing clippings from magazines and newspapers, the top
actor said the idols of Lord Ram and Sita were taken out
without dress and the deities also featured a garland of
sandals in a rally led by late Periyar E V Ramasamy in 1971.
"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.
Sorry, I will not express regret or apologise," he told
reporters outside his Poes Garden residence.
Further, he said, "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 said.
On the 1971 rally -in which Hindu deities were allegedly
taken out naked- the actor said such things that happened in
the past should not be raked up again and again.
"It was not a thing that can be (easily) forgotten but
a thing that must be forgotten," he quipped.
On January 14, taking part in an event held here by Tamil
magazine 'Thuglak' Rajinikanth alleged: "In 1971, at Salem,
Periyar took out a rally in which the undressed images of
Lord Sriramachandramoorthy and Sita -with a garland of sandal-
featured ...."
A Dravidian outift, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam,
however, accused the actor of "uttering a blatant lie" and
demanded his unconditional apology and also filed police
complaints seeking action against him.
DVK alleged that the actor uttered a "blatant lie that
the images of Lord Ram and Sita were taken nude in a rally,
held as part of a superstition eradication conference
held in 1971 at Salem." PTI VGN
ROH ROH

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)