Another chapter was added to Tamil epic heroine Kannagi’s modern-day battle when DMK president M. Karunanidhi yesterday unveiled an 8-ft bronze statue of her in Teynampet, the erstwhile party office and present headquarters of its youth wing. Earlier, her statue had almost overnight disappeared from Marina here a year ago after a lorry rammed into its pedestal.That had set off a flurry of charges and counter-charges between the DMK and the ruling AIADMK over who revered Kannagi, a representative of Tamil culture and tradition, more. While the AIADMK claimed that the statue on Marina was a traffic hazard, the DMK said Jayalalithaa had it removed due to some superstition.The party, which has been demanding re-installation of the Kannagi statue, had originally planned to put up one at the junction of Eldams Road and Anna Salai but dropped the move when the Jayalalithaa regime refused permission citing traffic hazard.The Marina statue of Kannagi — the protagonist of ancient Tamil literary work Silappadikaram — had been unveiled by late Tamil scholar M.P. Sivagnanam in 1968 during the regime of C.N. Annadurai, the DMK’s founder. Since it was removed, it has been lying in the Government Museum and a case in this regard is pending in the Madras High Court.Speaking at yesterday’s function where the new Kannagi statue was unveiled before a huge crowd of DMK workers, Karunanidhi hailed the party’s youth wing for the re-installation.
