BJP’s national general secretary H. Raja, who is never short of making controversial statements, has apologized openly that he wasn’t supportive of views expressed in his name in his Facebook account supporting the idea of destroying social reformer E.V.R. Periyar’s statues in the State.

“It happened without my knowledge and I have dismissed the staff member(s) responsible for the controversial posting,” Raja has said now, a few days after his Facebook account ‘exhorted’ party cadres in Tamil Nadu to commence destruction of all EVR Periyar’s statues in various parts of the State similar to the destruction of Lenin’s statues in Tripura soon after it was voted to power in the State last week.

Dravidian parties including the AIADMK, the DMK, the MDMK and the Communists registered strong protest opposing Raja’s remarks. Protests are already under way in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruvannamalai, Coimbatore and Salem demanding arrest of Raja for his controversial Facebook posting. BJP high command, in the meanwhile, has staged categorically that it won’t approve anything which demeans leaders like Priyar.

“I sincerely apologize if anybody’s sentiment has been hurt,” Raja said while speaking to newsmen yesterday. “It wasn’t a posting made consciously by me but my staff when I was travelling by air from Chennai to New Delhi. I saw it when I landed in Delhi and deleted it soon after.  hough my staff did it, I seek sincerely apology for the same,” Raja said.