Rajinikanth

CHENNAI: Actor Rajinikanth on Tuesday refused to apologise for his recent comment about a rally conducted by social reformer Periyar E V Ramasamy in Salem in 1971. "This (the rally) is not an incident to deny, but an incident to forget," the actor said.

"My recent speech at the Thuglak (a Tamil magazine) function has raised a controversy. I did not say anything out of imagination or anything not true. What I said was based on what I read in newspapers and in an English magazine. If someone expects me to apologise and express regret for it, Sorry. I will neither apologise nor express regret," Rajinikanth told reporters outside his Poes Garden residence in Chennai.

Participating in the golden jubilee celebrations of Thuglak in Chennai last week, Rajinikanth referred to a 1971 rally in Salem conducted by Periyar. He said "portraits of Ram and Sita without clothes" and decorated by garlands made of slippers had been carried. Copies of Thuglak, which carried that photo were seized, leading to a spike in the demand for that magazine, he added.

Denying Periyar had slippered the portraits, Periyarists from various organisations had condemned the speech of Rajinikanth and demanded his apology. Some political parties like VCK threatened to ghereo his residence.

"Let them say what they want. I will stand by what I said," Rajinikanth told reporters, flashing a photo copy of an article that appeared in the English magazine in the year 2017.

