With merely 4 days to go for Ganesh Chaturthi, the Hindu-hating DMK government in Tamil Nadu is cracking down on Ganesh idol makers. Most of these artisans are from Rajasthan and have embraced the local culture.
The premises of Hindu artisans in the Sungagate area in Karur were sealed by the Pollution Control Board (PCB) leaving the idol makers without a source of income.
Videos of the crackdown are going viral on social media sparking widespread anger amongst netizens. The crackdown on the Hindu idol makers comes just days after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin called for the “eradication of Sanatan Dharma”.
Videos show state officials sealing the idol-making unit even as women artisans plead with them to not hurt their source of income. In one such video shared by BJP TN President, an artisan narrates his ordeal while speaking to the local media.
While being questioned about the incident by the local media, the artisan said, “We have been making Ganesh idols for 10 years. We use chalkpiece powder to make the idols. It dissolves in water. Officers came saw the samples. They said the idols are not in good quality. They saw before two days. The paint in the powder is water paint. They sealed our shed. There is not chemical mix. No external mix, no oil paint colours too. It is normal water paint.”
“About 160 to 170 idols are here. I have availed a loan for interest and invested Rs 10 lakh. I have borrowed from relatives and friends. Have to pay balance amount for food too,” he added.
Another woman from the same family cried helplessly as she appealed for consideration. “All these years they did not say anything. Only now they are saying this. If they had told us 20 days earlier we would have taken the idols elsewhere. Now we cannot move them there. We have to settle the amount to provision stores. We have availed loan for interest,” she said.
Nearly 400 Ganesh idols have been sealed by the PCB along with officials from the revenue department and the police following a surprise visit. The sleuths cited a complaint as grounds for the visit that plaster of Paris (PoP) was allegedly being used in violation of regulations.
Notably, the idol-makers have reportedly been creating the idols for more than a decade using potato flour and other natural materials which easily dissolve in water.
Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai has accused the DMK of hurting the sentiments of practitioners of Sanatan Dharma and also hurting the economy.
“By disrupting the business of people dependent on the outcomes our festivities offer, DMK is not only hurting the feelings of the practitioners of Sanatana Dharma but also stopping the multiplier effect in the local economy. With Vinayagar Chaturthi a few days away, this clampdown by the corrupt DMK govt is highly condemnable,” Annamalai wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Hindu groups including Shiv Sena Party and Indhu Makkal Katchi have reportedly raised questions on the timing and the validity of the complaint. They said that the PCB sealed the unit without conducting proper chemical tests on the idols.
The BJP and the Hindu community at large have accused the DMK of undermining Hindus and Hindu festivals. Representatives from Hindu organisations have reportedly claimed that they had placed orders for 120 Ganesh idols and that the sudden sealing of the unit appears to be a conspiracy to hurt Hindu sentiments.
An idol factory owner and BJP worker named Murugan was raided a few days ago in Tenkasi on charges of using PoP to make idols. The artisan was compelled to break one of his idols to prove that it was biodegradable and not made of PoP.
Despite this, an FIR was filed against Murugan.
The DMK has crossed all limits in its campaign against Sanatan Dharma. The party seems to have strategically unleashed hatred on Hindus ever since Udhayanidhi Stalin called for an end to Sanatan Dharma.