CHENNAI, INDIA, July 23, 2016 (Deccan Chronicle): Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday wrote to her Uttarakhand counterpart Harish Rawat thanking him for taking steps to install the Thiruvalluvar statue within the government Mela Bhavan in Haridwar. “I am grateful that you have responded speedily and positively to the outpouring of sentiments of the people of TN on this sensitive issue,” she told Rawat, who had dispatched a senior Tamil IAS officer in Uttarkhand to identify a suitable spot for the statue’s installation.
Ms. Jayalalithaa in her letter told Rawat that the Thiruvalluvar statue issue had caused “considerable disquiet” in TN. Several political leaders in TN had expressed concern over the statue of the poet-saint lying wrapped in a park in Haridwar after the efforts by BJP MP Tarun Vijay to install it on the banks of Ganga failed due to protest from local sadhus.
It appeared that the sadhus were against the Thiruvalluvar statue being erected in an area where only the statues of Hindu deities have been installed. According to R. Meenakshi Sundaram, vice-chairman of the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority, a suitable spot inside the Mela Bhavan will be decided after consulting the Ganga Sabha and the Akhil Bharatiya Akahara Parishad representatives.