Amid the outrage in Tamil Nadu that centered on 'Manu Dharma' with BJP and Viduthalai Siruthaigal Katchi (VCK) on either side of the aisle, VCK Chief Thol. Thirumavalavan has, on Saturday, organized protests in Chennai against the Manu Dharma and allegations leveled on him by the BJP. The protests, participated by the VCK leaders and activists, had demanded the ban of the ancient book of laws, which has been considered to be a code of conduct for Hindu society. 
 
Thirumavalavan had taken part in the protest held in Valluvar Kottam in Chennai. The VCK Chief said that Manu dharma degrades women, the underprivileged, Dalits, and indigenous people. The Manusmriti divides humans and demeans women and demanded that it should strictly be banned in the country. By citing that leaders like Periyar and Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti, the VCK leaders had burnt the copies of the ancient book of laws. 

The party had demanded to ban Manusmriti. Responding to the allegations kept against him by BJP, Thirumavalavan said that the Hindutva groups are spreading false and baseless accusations against him and he also said that the communal forces were creating controversy regarding his speech to break the VCK's alliance with DMK. 

Earlier, the BJP had accused him of demeaning women and filed a police complaint in Chennai against Thirumavalavan and urged the police to take action against him under the grounds of promoting enmity between different groups. According to reports,  the VCK Chief was addressing the webinar organized on 'Periyar and Indian Politics' in September 2020. He spoke about how women were treated in Manu dharma, what it says about women and how they are oppressed. In the webinar, Thirumavalan can be heard saying that Manu dharma says women are created by God as prostitutes and as per Hindu dharma, all women are prostitutes. 

However, a video of his speech in webinar without the referral and mention of Manu dharma has been widely circulated on social media sites in which many had voiced against the VCK leader for calling women as prostitutes. Finding a factor to stir up the issue, Hindu nationalist BJP had taken the matter and strongly accused Thirumalavan of degrading women as prostitutes. 

Responding to the allegations, Thirumavalavan, while addressing the protest, said that Periyarists in Europe had conducted a webinar on September 27 in which he gave a 45 minutes speech. He stated that a few groups had edited out five minutes from his whole speech and these groups had claimed that he had demeaned women. He flayed Hindutva groups for making false claims for their political gains. 

The VCK Chief said that the mindset of Sanatana groups is not to degrade him but to divide the DMK alliance and he asserted that he hadn't demeaned women and appealed to everyone to listen to his entire speech in the webinar. On the other hand, the BJP had approached the Chennai police and filed a complaint against Thirumavalan over his remarks against women. 

According to reports, the Chennai police had filed a complaint against Thirumalavan on Friday based on an online complaint by BJP legal cell state secretary Ashwathaman. The BJP leader had asked the police to take action against Thirumavalan and the Youtube channel that published the webinar under the grounds of creating enmity between two groups and for promoting false information. 

After learning that the police had filed a case against Thirumavalavan based on BJP's complaint, DMK President MK Stalin had scathingly attacked the police and said, "It is condemnable that police had filed a case against Thirumavalavan instead of taking action against the communal groups that had changed the statement of the VCK Chief and Stalin had further urged that the case and complaint filed against the VCK Chief should be withdrawn. 

Must-read: BJP vs Thirumavalavan: How 'Manu Dharma' stirred outrage in the state?