A senior district police official said the two vandalised a bust-size statue of Ramasasmy in an inebriated state.
Police identified the arrested as Muthuraman and Francis.
While Muthuraman is suspected to be a BJP worker, Francis is believed to be a CPI activist, police said.
After the statue of Russian leader Vladimir Lenin was razed down in Tripura, following the defeat of the Left party in the northeastern state after 25 years of rule, on Tuesday, Raja in his Facebook post said: “Who is Lenin? How is he connected to India? How is communism linked to India? Lenin’s statue destroyed in Tripura. Today Lenin’s statue, tomorrow Tamil Nadu’s EVR Ramaswami’s statue.”
BJP youth wing’s vice-president S.G. Suryah also made similar observations. Suryah tweeted, “BJP successfully completed the fall of Lenin in #Tripura! Can’t wait for the fall of EV Ramasamy statues in Tamil Nadu.”
BJP’s national general secretary Muralidhar Rao, however, “BJP does not subscribe to any kind of provoking or disrespectful statements and actions of vandalism towards leaders like Periyar. We condemn outrightly those people who are indulging in such actions.”
Police security has been beefed up for BJP offices and for Periyar statues. In Chennai, security has been provided to all 27 statues of Periyar, reported Tamil news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai.
