Farmer leader Ayyakannu said on Friday that he has decided to lodge a complaint against a woman member of the BJP and a couple of other party leaders for slapping him at Tiruchendur in Tamil Nadu.
"I am on a 100-day padayatra spreading the ill-effects of genetically modified seeds. Yesterday we were in Tiruchendur. After praying to Lord Muruga at the Tiruchendur temple, we started distributing pamphlets outside," Ayyakannu told IANS over phone.
Tiruchendur is around 640 km from Chennai in Tuticorin district.
He said suddenly a woman rushed towards him and other farmers and told them not to distribute the pamphlets, resulting in an argument.
"In a polite way, I asked her why I should not distribute the pamphlets to the public, that too outside the temple," Ayyakannu said.
"Suddenly she slapped me. I restrained the people who were with me saying that the police may file a case and put us in jail," the 78-year-old farmer leader said.
The video of the woman slapping Ayyakannu went viral.
In the video, Ayyakannu, who had led a 41-day protest in New Delhi to highlight the plight of TN farmers, is seen distributing pamphlets to devotees at the Tiruchendur temple in Thoothukudi district.
As the pamphlet is being given to a woman devotee, another woman barges into the picture, accompanied by a man. The woman, Nellaiyammal, District Secretary of the BJP Women’s Wing, seizes the pamphlet from the devotee’s hand and says, “Don’t take his pamphlet. This Ayyakannu is a fraud.”
A visibly upset Ayyakannu immediately uses a Tamil cuss word implying she is a slut. The woman retaliates and slaps Ayyakannu. Pandemonium ensues with the other men in Ayyakannu's group and the two BJP members shouting at each other.
According to Ayyakannu, the woman member of the Bharatiya Janata Party "is just an arrow and the archer is different".
He said he planned to file a police complaint against the BJP woman leader and two of her party colleagues. On the other hand, the BJP said it was Ayyakannu who assaulted the lady and called her names.
(With IANS inputs)