12-feet Lenin statue unveiled in TN's Tirunelveli

The statue was unveiled in Tirunelveli CPI (M) headquarters by the party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

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A 12-feet tall statue of Vladimir Lenin was unveiled in Tirunelveli on Tuesday. The General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury unveiled the statue. The statue was erected in front of the CPI (M) headquarters in Tirunelveli on account of Lenin’s 95th death anniversary.

Apart from Sitaram Yechury, U Vasuki, CPI (M)’s Central Committee Member and R Karumalaiyan, CPI (M)’s State committee member, were also present at the unveiling ceremony. Speaking at the function, R Karumalaiyan said that Lenin’s Socialist movement gave the direction and the strength to fight against dynastic and social atrocities.

U Vasuki, who also spoke at the function, said that Lenin was the friend of all the working class people of Tirunelveli. “The philosophy in the minds of the people cannot be erased away by destroying statues,” she said, taking a dig at the BJP.

In March 2018, the BJP-Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) alliance came to power, bringing down the 25-year rule of the Left in the north eastern state. Soon, the statue of the Communist icon Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin was razed by a bulldozer amidst chants of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai’ by BJP supporters. This action received severe criticism from different quarters of the country.

Hours after the statue of Lenin was brought down in Tripura, BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu celebrated the fall of the Communist government in that state.

Following BJP National Secretary H Raja’s “warning” to Dravidian parties through a Facebook post, violence ensued in the state with petrol bombs being hurled at BJP party offices state followed by vandals attacking EV Ramasamy, famously known as ‘Periyar’, statues.