NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah came down hard on their own cadre to contain the damage from desecration of statues of Lenin in Tripura and Periyar in Tamil Nadu. To make it more effective, they even got the RSS to fall in line.The political alarm bells were actually set off by the BJP national secretary in Tamil Nadu when he called for removal of Periyar’s statue just like the victory marchers had done in Tripura. And soon enough, Periyar’s statue was vanadalised. In a state where BJP is working hard to earn some goodwill with all local political entities ahead of the 2019 polls, this was exactly the sort of act they would not have wanted from their workers. So, a stern message had to go out to TN and Tripura, the fountainhead of the statue trouble that could spread across BJP state units.A three-pronged effort was simultaneously launched. The PM condemned the incident, got home minister Rajnath Singh to activate the official law and order machinery.Shah spoke to his state party units and delivered a tough message to party’s North-East team for trying to justify the acts on social media.Simultaneously, the RSS regional pracharaks like Sunil Deodhar in Tripura and BL Santosh in the South, both now loaned to BJP, were contacted and asked to use their influence among the cadre to prevent the sentiment from going out of control.BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, particular, was asked to be more responsible. He was advised to delete a provocative tweet that said: “People taking down Lenin’s statue...not in Russia; it is in Tripura. ‘Chalo Paltai’ “(Let’s change”). A few others from his team, who are active on social media, were also sternly counselled.“I have spoken to the party units in both Tamil Nadu and Tripura. Any person associated with BJP found to be involved with destroying any statue will face severe action from the party,” Shah went on to post on twitter, issuing a strong warning to workers.On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu’s Vellore saw demolition of bust of Tamil icon and social activist EV Ramasamy, famously called Periyar. BJP national secretary H Raja, had suggested on Facebook that Periyar statues in his state could be next, after Lenin, which has sparked the outrage. DMK, MDMK, CPM and CPI had demanded action against Raja.Raja was asked to delete the post. He did so and apologised. And by Wednesday morning, Shah was on the phone line asking BJP Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundarrajan to ensure “no negative image of the government is created.” Speaking to ET, Tamilisai said her conversation with Shah was cordial. “He asked me to ensure party workers didn’t vandalise the statues of any other leaders… (since then) his office has been following up on whatever he said.”Highly-placed government officials told ET that the PM was quite clear about taking immediate action.“There should be no optics of any anarchy. It’s very important that the government doesn’t show any sign that it takes law and order lightly. That is why all entities — both in the party and government were mobilised,” an official said explaining the PM’s instructions.Home minister Rajnath Singh was asked to speak to Tripura governor Tathagatha Roy to not provoke the situationthroughhissocialmediahandles. Later, the home ministry issued a second advisory cautioning DMs and SPs that they will be personally held accountable if such sentiment-inciting attempts continues unabated. “The advisory asks the states to make DMs and SSPs personally responsible for ensuring that the law and order situation remains firmly under control in their jurisdiction,” stated the ministry.The ministry has also advised states to intensify patrolling in sensitive locations, push community policing for peace and harmony, keep an eye on anti-social elements and take preventive measures wherever required.