by g c shekharthe political rivalry between m g ramachandran and m karunanidhi was so intertwined that even on the day of mgrs death on december 24 1987 its aftermath indirectly impacted the dmk veteranon that winter morning even as mgrs body lay in state at rajaji hall a few hundred meters away karunanidhis statue on anna salai where the road forked into general patters road was being vandalised by a strange coincidence i captured it on my nikkormat camerathe crowd on anna salai meant i had to foot it out to rajaji hall from my office on patullos road i had joined the telegraph just a month ago the stretch between the arts college and buharis was all mayhem as rampaging hooligans were ransacking shops and damaging their glass fronts i was clicking away when i spotted a lean guy scrambling on to the karunanidhi statue that had remained untouched over 10 years of his rivals rulesomeone passed on an iron rod to him as he stood on the pedestal in front of the lifesized statue when he found out he could only reach up to its waist level he wanted something to stand upon soon a cement dustbin was rolled from the footpath and hoisted onto the pedestal a couple of bricks keeping it in place the vandal hitched his lungi clambered on to the dustbin and started to attack the statue i managed to take a couple of shots when someone alerted him about being photographed the vandal turned towards me but he soon went back to his destructive moderealising it would take a while for him to demolish the metal structure unless the inconspicuous police showed up i walked towards rajaji hall since president r venkatraman and prime minister rajiv gandhi were to arriveas i walked back to my office i noticed a few photographers shooting remnants of the statue sticking out from the pedestal as i finished lunch at the canteen of indian express my previous employer and then located where express avenue stands today i learned that its photographer k sivaraman had lost most of his camera equipment along with film rolls in the melee when police lathicharged the crowdwhen the chief reporter rm t sambandam told me they had no pictures of the vvips at rajaji hall i offered my film rolls since i worked for a different daily i asked them not to give credit for any of the photosthe next mornings indian express had the photo of the karunanidhi statue being speared on the front page i managed to send the negatives to calcutta through an air passenger on the morning of december 25 the telegraph too published the same photo on december 26 on the front page with my byline along with j jayalalithaa being thrown off mgrs cortege it became the defining photo of that historic event probably giving an inkling that the next round of rivalry will be between these two leadersnever to let go