Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu greeted the nation on the birth anniversary of Tamil poet, philosopher and saint, Thiruvalluvar. While tweeting, the office of VP had tweeted an image of the poet wearing saffron robes.
However, soon after he tweeted, the ‘secular’ brigade outraged that using Thiruvalluvar’s picture wearing saffron robes is ‘appropriating’ him and alleged that this disrespected him.
https://twitter.com/aiswaryavenkat/status/1217669942310400001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/sumanthraman/status/1217640626633629696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As per Congress-friendly journalist Sumanth Raman, the Vice President of India should have used a ‘state approved’ photograph of Saint Thiruvalluvar.
DMK leader Dr Senthilkumar S also objected to the saffron robes.
https://twitter.com/DrSenthil_MDRD/status/1217640905697423361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He alleged that the saffron robe worn by saint Thiruvalluvar in the picture depicted religion and caste.
Saint Thiruvalluvar
For the record, there is no official record on what kind of clothes Saint Thiruvalluvar wore or any details about his life and portraits of him are also artistic imagery of the poet-saint. In fact, as per reports, there is inadequate information even on his name as well as his poetic work. However, it is generally believed that he lived sometime between 4th and 6th century BC.
However, after the ‘secular’ outrage, Vice President of India deleted his original tweet and posted a new tweet to greet the nation on the poet-saint’s birth anniversary.
https://twitter.com/VPSecretariat/status/1217670449636634624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This time, the image he shared had Saint Thiruvalluvar wearing white robes.