The Hindu spoke to R.V. Ramesh Yadav, the local BJP politician, who objected to an Australian law student sporting a tattoo. Excerpts from an interview:
Were you at the restaurant when the incident took place? The Australian law student has alleged that you abused him for the tattoo. Why?
Yes, I was at the Konark Hotel with three other people and saw this youth sporting a tattoo of a Hindu goddess on his leg. We went up to him and asked him what the tattoo was. He replied that it is Yellamma, a Hindu goddess. Which mean he was aware that it is a goddess. Yet, he was insulting the goddess. We asked him to remove the tattoo or we would protest. But he started using foul language. He also called up his friend, a localite, who turned up at the spot. The friend also used foul language and others at the restaurant joined in to condemn this. You can check the CCTV footage at the restaurant. One of us called up the Ashok Nagar police. They came and whisked the couple away to the police station. There too he was arguing. Later, he gave an apology letter to the police after which I intervened and my friend withdrew the complaint he had lodged (against the Australian). It was amicably settled.
Many sport tattoos on the shin and calf. What is wrong with it?
It is an insult to the Hindu goddess and also provocative. When we came to know that it was a permanent tattoo, we only asked him to wear a pair of trousers and cover it, for his own safety. But if he roams on the streets of Austin Town and other areas in Shantinagar, when most people would be celebrating Durga Puja, his safety itself is at stake if some mob notices and objects to the tattoo. It is for his own good that we told him and convinced him about this.
Was there a need to make the Australian write an apology letter? What wrong did he do to warrant an apology?
We did not force him to write an apology letter. He voluntarily gave that letter. We asked him to apologise for the foul language which he used, in which we are justified.
We and the police only educated him about Hindu values and that sporting that tattoo on the leg would be taken as an insult to the religion. Moreover, I agree that we as Hindus have not educated others enough. How would he know?
He would have got a tattoo in India itself. When one of us could have put that tattoo on his leg, there is no point in objecting to him sporting it. So we let him go after asking him to wear a pair of trousers.
