Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah refused to accept a sceptre with an engraving of Periyar on Saturday, June 17. An organisation from Madurai, Makkal Sammoga Needhi Peravai, had brought the sceptre to hand it to Siddaramaiah, but ended up handing over photographs of Periyar, Dr BR Ambedkar, and Basavanna, after the Chief Minister and other Congress leaders present at the meeting told them he could not accept it as it was undemocratic. The Congress themselves had strongly protested when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accepted the sceptre (sengol) during the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28, 2023.
Manoharan from the Makkal Samooga Needhi Peravai explained that their organisation was formed on the ideologies of Periyar, Ambedkar, and Marx, and founded for social justice and human rights. He said they wanted to present Siddaramaiah with the ‘social justice’ sceptre because he had worked for the advancement of social justice in the past and continued to do so after he recently became the Chief Minister.
“We felt that Siddaramaiah’s actions in the past and even after he became the Chief Minister now, has been in advancing social justice. He removed the portions about Savarkar in the Karnataka school syllabus. He said that he would increase reservation to 75%. Since he has been working for the welfare of the marginalised people, we wanted to present him with a ‘social justice sceptre’. But he told us that the sceptre is a symbol of monarchy and it is against democracy. That is why when Modi received it in the Parliament ,we protested against it. We said that the sceptre presented to Modi had a religious symbol so it was an expression of sanatana. But our sceptre has Periyar, who is a symbol of social justice,” he said.
“We did see the reasoning behind his opinion so we relented. But he took Periyar’s books and pictures that we had presented to him,” Manoharan added.
Sources from the Chief Minister’s office said they were not aware of the organisation’s plan to give a sengol to Siddaramaiah. “The meeting was set up because the group had said they wanted to offer their wishes on being given the Ambedkar Sudar award instituted by the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) last year. It is only when they met that we heard about it,” a source said. The organisation, however, is not deterred by Siddaramaiah’s refusal to accept the sceptre. Manoharan said that they are planning to convert the sceptre into a ‘pillar of social justice’ with Periyar’s engraving on top and invite Siddaramaiah to Tamil Nadu to receive it in September this year.