New statue shows Ambedkar sitting cross-legged. That has left this TN village on the boil.

COIMBATORE: Scores injured in stone-pelting, a region on the boil over communal strife, and hundreds of police personnel deployed to prevent further escalation. All it took to stir this caste couldron in Odhiyathur Panchayat near Gangavalli in Salem district was a new statue of BR Ambedkar.

To be clear, the issue was not about placing the statue of the tallest leader of the Dalit community, as there already existed a bust at the same location. Trouble started because the new statue depicted him sitting cross-legged, that too facing the locality across the road where people from intermediate caste reside.

The statue that has Ambedkar seated, legs crossed, holding a copy of the Constitution against the backdrop of a pedestal designed to resemble the Indian Parliament, has remained at the centre of a controversy ever since it was installed in 2021.

According to Kakkan Selvakumar, Salem district secretary of VCK, the controversy was not about the presence of an Ambedkar statue itself but its design and orientation.

"There was already a simple bust of Ambedkar at the location, which never attracted any objections. The opposition began only after we replaced it with this seated statue on a Parliament-shaped pedestal.

Some sections objected to Ambedkar being depicted in a cross-legged seated posture, facing the locality of another community across the road," Selvakumar alleged.

He maintained that the statue stands within the Dalit residential colony. The issue resurfaced in recent days after unidentified persons removed the covering from the statue. Members of another group objected and staged a road blockade demanding that it be covered again.

Ambedkar statue covered, Dalit orgs launch hunger strikes

As tensions mounted, Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) R Tamizhmani ordered that the statue, along with nearby statues of late leaders, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and former chief minister K Kamaraj, be temporarily covered as a precautionary measure to maintain public order.

Several Dalit organisations have since announced plans to launch an indefinite hunger strike demanding that the Ambedkar statue be uncovered.

"If this statue is to be removed or kept covered for want of permission, then the government must apply the same standard to thousands of other statues erected without approval across Tamil Nadu. If a solution is not reached, we will intensify our protests," representatives of the groups said.

200 cops deployed to curb tensions

Attur DSP Sathyaraj said as a precautionary measure, around 200 police personnel have been deployed round the clock in the locality. “Fifteen persons have so far been arrested and remanded in connection with the scuffle that broke out after the statue was reopened without permission a few days ago," the DSP said.

RDO Tamizhmani said the situation in the village was now under control following peace committee meetings involving representatives of both sides. "It has been decided during the peace talks that the statue will remain covered temporarily. A decision on uncovering it will be taken at a later stage after due consultation," he said.