Rajinikanth says attempts to smear him with BJP's colour won't work

Actor Rajinikanth on Friday said there were attempts to smear him with the BJP’s saffron colour but that he would not get trapped in it. “Like Thiruvalluvar, BJP’s saffron colour is being smeared on me. Just like Thiruvalluvar, it won't stick on me,” he said when asked if he was considering joining the BJP.

The actor, who participated in the unveiling of K. Balachander's bust at the new office of Raj Kamal Films International, said that the whole controversy involving Thiruvalluvar was rather silly. However, he firmly stated that Thiruvalluvar was not an atheist and was a devout, God-believing person.

“The BJP seems to have done it on their social media pages. They haven’t said that all Thiruvalluvar statues should be saffronised. But, why should this be such a big controversy? People have so many problems and so many needs. This controversy is just silly,” he said.

Recent incidents concerning the Tamil poet-saint have triggered a political controversy. The BJP had released an image of Thiruvalluvar in saffron robes. A statue of Thiruvalluvar in Thanjavur was defaced and later, Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath had draped the statue with a saffron shawl and placed a rudraksha maala on it.