Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday unveiled a statue of Dravidian stalwart and five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the late M. Karunanidhi, in the presence of the latter's son and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in Chennai.
The statue, located at the campus of the multi super specialty government hospital at Omandurar Estate in Chennai, is placed a few hundred meters away from the place where the original statue was vandalised 35 years ago in the wake of AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran's death.
The 16-feet high bronze statue is mounted on a 14-foot high pedestal. After the formal unveiling, the Vice-President, accompanied by the Chief Minister and other leaders paid floral tributes to a portrait of Karunanidhi kept near the statue.
Periyar (rationalist leader E V Ramasamy) wanted to install a statue of Kalaignar (as Karunanidhi was known). But after Periyar's death his wife Maniammai took the initiative along with the Dravidar Kazhagam to install his statue on Anna Salai, Mr. Stalin said.
"The statue was vandalised by certain evil forces out of political malice following the death of MGR (as Ramachandran was addressed)," Mr. Stalin said in his epistle to his DMK workers on Friday.
