Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Seer has no role in Sankararaman murder

Kancheepuram, Dec 28: In his first public comment on the arrest of his senior in a murder case, junior Sankaracharya of the Kanchi mutt, Vijayendra Saraswathi, today said he told the special police that Jayendra Saraswathi "would not have done this (conspiring to eliminate Sankararaman)".

"I told them that he (Jayendra Saraswathi) would not have done this," Vijayendra Saraswathi told the media in his first ever interaction since the arrest of his senior on November 11 in the case.

He was addressing the media on the mutt premises on his return from the special police headquarters, where he was questioned for three hours today.

Vijayendra Saraswathi also said he told the police, in response to a question, that the senior seer had advised him not to visit him at Vellore prison.

"They asked me about my plans to meet the acharya at the prison. I told them that I had informed him (Jayendra Saraswathi) about my plans to call on him and that I was asked not to come now. I will go (to meet him) when he permits me," he said.

Mutt advocates, who accompanied the junior seer, said the questions asked by the police were general in nature. (Agencies)

My Senior would not have done it: Vijayendra

Tuesday, 28 December , 2004, 16:54

Kancheepuram: In his first public comment on the arrest of his senior in a murder case, Kanchi junior Sankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswathi on Tuesday said he told the special police that Jayendra Saraswathi would not have done this (conspiring to eliminate Sankararaman).

"I told them that he (Jayendra Saraswathi) would not have done this," Vijyendra Saraswathi told the media in his first ever interaction since the arrest of his senior on November 11 in the case.

He was addressing the media on the mutt premises on his return from the special police headquarters, where he was questioned for three hours on Tuesday.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

H.H. SRI JAYENDRA SARASWATHI -- A VICTIM OF GUTTER POLITICS OF TAMILNADU

Democracy is a three legged stool consisting of Executive branch, Judiciary, and Legislature. The three branches are supposed to provide checks and balances for smooth functioning of the government. This approach failed in India. One of the main reasons is fifty years of communist rule in India. The executive (bureaucracy) and judiciary are filled with communists. And to maintain their power, the legislatures find it convenient to appease minority community. Secularism as enshrined in the constitution has taken new meaning. As long as Hindus and Hindu Dharma is at the receiving end, secularism is intact. But rules change when it is the minority community. Let us analyze this mockery of secular democratic country.

Judiciary: Judiciary¡¦s role is to safeguard constitution and dispense justice in a timely fashion. There are innumerous cases where judges played the role of an activist and a partisan when Hindus were blamed and got punished wrongly. Both the speed and action taken by courts and judges in the following two cases is laudable. „« Supreme Court showed lot of enthusiasms in best bakery case.„« A court sentenced Dara Singh within such a short time.

But the same judges and courts lose steam when they are asked to dispense justice in issues involving Hindus. Where is the speed and judicial activism in the cases of Kashmiri Pundits or Ayodhya temple!!

Hindu Schools: Education controls the future minds. In India this has been exploited to hilt to damage Hindu Dharma. Keonaard Elst has described this eloquently in his discussion on BJP vis a vis Hinduism:

¡§Article 30 of the Constitution, which lays down that the minorities, can set up government-sponsore denominational schools (implying the right to a communal bias in recruitment of teachers and students and a religion-centred curriculum). When the Constitutional Assembly voted this article, many delegates probably assumed that the extension of the same rights to the Hindu majority was self- understood; but in practice, this right is denied to the Hindus. This became hilariously clear in the 1980s, when the Ramakrishna Mission deemed it necessary to declare itself a non-Hindu minority (a self-definition challenged in court by its own members and struck down) in order to prevent the West Bengal government from nationalizing its schools.[1] Art.30 constitutes a very serious discrimination on grounds of religion, and is in conflict with the professed secular character of the Indian Republic.

In no democratic country would a majority community tolerate such discrimination, and it says a lot about the stranglehold which the secularist intelligentsia has on public discourse that this article hardly ever figures in debates on secularism and communalism. It also says a lot about the meekness of the Hindus in general and about the incompetence of the Hindutva movement in particular¡¨.

Hindu Temples: India is the only country where the majority community (HINDUS) does not has any control over their religious places. Unequal treatment of Hindu and non-Hindu places of worship is a hall mark of Indian secularism. Muslims have full control of their mosques, Christians have full control of their churches, but Hindus are systematically deprived of the control of their temples. Recently the authorities tried (unsuccessfully) to have the Shirdi Sai Baba temple in Hyderabad declared a Hind temple, because that would allow them to take it over and do what they have been doing everywhere to Hindu temples: siphon the income off to their own pockets or to other non-Hindu purposes. This is a major factor in the dire poverty which Hindu temple priests (whose wages have not been adjusted for decades) and their families suffer.

The state governments are non- trans parent, unaccountable and treat the temples and endowments as their fiefdoms. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living has properly defined the issue as "The Government, which failed to manage the PSUs, is now eyeing the temples. This dual stand is unacceptable." One of the Udupi seer draws a different parallel. "When mosques and churches are enjoying total freedom, why does the Government need to interfere in the administration of temples?"

The state governments' control of Hindu temples and endowments, particularly in South India - that causes deep resentment amongst the majority community. When devotees make an offering in the temple, they innocently assumes that the donation if for the temple. Little do they know that the money is a line item in the state government¡¦s budget that is not only used to support the corrupt state government but also to support the activities of Christians and Muslims.

Case of Karnataka (shown in the table below) highlights this issue, though trusteeship by other South Indian states is equally harmful and flawed. The state control of Hindu temples in Karnataka, as has been practiced there, amounts to denial of religious freedom. In brazen disregard of the norms of trusteeship, the govt. in Karnataka has diverted revenues of temples to madrasas and churches, hampering cultural activities and forcing temples to brink of closure. Statement of Receipts and disbursements of revenues from Temples Govt. of Karnataka Statement of Allocation of Revenue for development purposes

This table shows the injustice done to Hindus by pseudo-secular
governments. The state of Karnataka is not an exception but a rule.

The same story is repeated in state after state.

Hindu Religious Leaders: On the holiest night in the Hindu calendar, Diwali, the night when good triumphs over evil, arrest the most visible, revered, and respectable Hindu religious leader in the country on a fabricated murder charges. Hindu leaders will be arrested even without justification. Non-Hindu leaders will not be arrested even when demanded by the courts on the grounds of creating a law-and-order situation. Surely requirements of law and justice, if any, could have been met by a more considerate and benign approach by the law enforcement agencies, keeping in view the very great reverence that the Kanchi Peetathipathi commands among the vast mass of Hindus of the country.

„« Arrest a Hindu sanyasini because she had raised the Indian flag. But the state and its instruments of power turn a blind eye when non- Hindus are involved, as shown by the following few examples:

„« In Kerala, Muslim League Minister Kunjalikutty, accused of what is probably statutory rape (sex with a minor girl), refuses to step down. A mob of Muslims attacks media people just because an interview with the girl was broadcast

„« In Hyderabad, some low-level maulana is arrested, and a Muslim mob riots and attacks the police station to try and release him

„« Imam Bukhari of Jama Masjid in Delhi has number of criminal charges including those of murder against him.

„« Today¡¦s Indian Union ministry has four ministers with first degree criminal charges (this number excludes those who have corruption charges).

„« Maharashtra recently elected some most notorious criminals as MLAs.

„« State (AP) government¡¦s refusal of help to the Gujarat police in the arrest of Moulana Naseeruddin, president of the Tehreek-e- Tahfuz-e-Shaire Isl-am, more than once before he was picked up last month. Naseeruddin was facing charges in the killing of former Gujarat Minister Haren Pandya.

The successive pseudo-secular and successive governments has used all the instruments available at its disposal to crush Hindus and Hindu Dharma.

What Can Be Done: The main issue is not about religious persecution but what can be done about it.

Let me share a story narrated by Swami Vivekanand (Rousing Call to Hindu Nation; pp 156-157). ¡§Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed. As they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran the faster came the monkeys and began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, ¡§Face the brutes.¡¨ I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled. That is a lesson for all life ¡V face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them¡K¡K..¡¨.

By claiming that we can bear any wrong doing is nothing but weakness. Scriptures (Kural says), ¡§A man can be said to forbear only when he has the power to strike and strikes not; where he has not the power, what matters it whether he forbears or does not forbear.¡¨ Hiding behind explanation and justification will not solve anything. The Hindus must learn to face monkeys and act accordingly.

Everybody knows the need of the hour is someone like Bhagat Singh. The irony is that everyone wants Bhagat Singh to be born in their neighbor¡¦s home. Being a proud Hindu does not mean hatred for other religions. It only means that the onslaught and senseless attack on Hindus and Hinduism for more than thousand years must stop. Whenever there is a clash between a greater good and a smaller one, the interest of greater good prevails.

Tyajedekam Kulasyarthe
Gramasyarthe kulam tyajet
Gramam janapadasyarthe atmarthe priithveem tyajet

In the interest of the family, one individual may be given up. In the interest of the village, one family may be disregarded. In the interest of the nation, one village¡¦s interest may be disregarded. And for the sake of Atma the whole world may be given up.

The forces which are well known to be inimical to the concerns and legitimate interests of Hindus in general and their religious leadership in particular, could not, will not, and should not be allowed to succeed.

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah

Rakesh Bahadur
18 Nov. 2004

This could happen only to a Hindu religious leader

By S Gurumurthy
Monday, December 6 2004 15:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time

The case against the Shankaracharya of Kanchi appears to be on slippery ground. Who are the witnesses against him? Two of the several professional killers, habitual criminals, Yes, criminals, confessing to the crime as being at the instance of the Acharya.

It is no secret that these people say what the police want them to say. Still it is the confession of these criminals, which constitutes the "shocking evidence" against the Acharya.

The confessions were not before the court, but before the police officers. After one of them confessed before the police on November 10 and the Acharya arrested on that basis, he was presented in the court nine days later on November 19, the coaching to him to fix the Acharya being complete. Meanwhile, another criminal whose confession has been relied upon is still to confess before the magistrate.

But look at the story of the confessors. They are not the main actors in the killing, but just sidekicks, with whom the Acharya would never have dealt with as, even if had to, he would deal only through their leaders. Insiders in the police say that the main characters are two, one Appu and the other Chinna. Both are still at large. Chinna, who has another name, Rajni, seems to be the principal executor. He has many murders to his credit.

Discuss this topic
But insiders say that the police seem to have got not this Rajni alias Chinna, but some other Rajni and got him to confess to the crime. The real Rajni alias Chinna is still untraced. The real Rajni is well known in the underworld in Chennai. But the Rajni arrested is a small-time offender, who is not skilled enough to kill.

Not a figure in the underworld at all. This, if proved, could dynamite the prosecution. The public prosecutor called the Acharya "the worst criminal" on the basis of the confession of one, who may be a fake Rajni.

The other charges are that the main offender had spoken to the Acharya over phone. This is no surprise as Jayendra Saraswathi is known to be open to all. Deviating from the Mutt traditions, he entertained the worst offenders, met and blessed them. This used to offend his more conservative disciples. So receiving calls from Appu, a person charged with offence in this case, is no surprise. He must have received calls from many Appus. That cannot link the Acharya to the offender in the case.

The police have alleged that money was paid to the contract killers from the Mutt accounts. This story told in the open court on Nov 20 got changed in the affidavit on Monday (Nov 22). The police had earlier asserted that it was from the ICICI bank accounts of the Mutt. The Mutt denied that it had ICICI accounts. Now the police are searching for the bank accounts of persons other than the Mutt to fix the payments. This shows how anxious the authorities are to get at the Acharya.

Yet, such is the obsession to declare the Acharya guilty that not a single newspaper highlighted this volte-face by the police.

The prosecution is shaky. The police insiders admit that this prosecution will not succeed. But that does not matter. The prosecution has already succeeded in convicting the Acharya through the media.

So, proof is irrelevant, why, even court proceedings and eventually the judgment itself may be irrelevant. One can recall how a case against the Ananda Marg was perverted in the investigation to fix the chief of the organisation on similar facts, similar witnesses and similar events, because of lack of public vigil and scrutiny during the 1970s.

There is every possibility that using the lack of public scrutiny here too the same thing would happen. How can the Acharya get justice in this atmosphere in the state? Here the advice of 'Cho' Ramaswamy that the investigation and prosecution should be shifted to another State seems to be the only way to ensure justice to the Acharya.

Undeniably, the investigation is moving single-mindedly to fix the Acharya. This ignores another perspective, that the offenders have fixed the Acharya himself. Instead of killing the victim, fixing the Acharya could well be the motive of the killers. So it calls for a thorough re-investigation.

Applying all possibilities, including that the organisers of the crime might have fixed the Acharya and the police could well have become a victim to the fix. Without a thorough re-investigation justice will derail.

Politically, this could happen only to a Hindu religious leader. It is unthinkable that an Imam could ever be arrested in this country, and never on Ramzan Day. An Archbishop could never be arrested on Christmas Day.

But a Shankaracharya could be arrested on Deepavali Day. This sums up the content of secularism in India. Someone said on television the other day, "There were no disturbances following the arrest".

Does this not imply that it is a disqualification for the Acharya that he has peaceful followers? Is the model for religious leadership that of Shahi Imam who dared the Government to arrest him and face the consequences?

If this be the correct model for success, may be over a period of time the Hindus too will acquire that trait so that no one gloats after arresting a Shankaracharya that there is no law and order problem.

So if the Hindu religious leaders find peaceful disciples useless, they will also build a following that will qualitatively match the following of a Shahi Imam.

Religious Persecution in the name of Secularism

Ashok Singhal has alleged that the conspiracy behind the shankaracharya's arrest goes far beyond Jayalalithaa. I tend to agree. The attached summary gives a geopolitical picture behind the assault on Hindu symbols, in attempts to weaken India.

Note that the media is simply repeating police claims without any independent investigation. More seriously, law enforcement and even the judiciary have been immobilized by interest groups so the legal system is virtually dysfunctional. Even a small time operator like Teesta Setelavad is able to get away with witness tampering as Americans call it and yet receive awards and lecture in public. The system has all but collapsed.

I trust you to get this in the hands of Singhal and Seshadriji. We probably should have a copy

Here is an excellent opportunity to expose the designs. Please give this the widest circulation.

SONIA GANDHI AS VATICAN’S MUSHARRAF?
Christian paranoia over Christianity’s collapse in the West followed by the growing menace of Islam is behind its renewed aggression in India.

Ashamed To Be A Tamilan

Dec 10, 2004

Ashamed To Be A Tamilan

By Prakash M Swamy

For the first time in my life, I am ashamed to be from the state of Tamil Nadu and a media person having trained and worked in the city of Madras, now called Chennai. I have always felt that I am a proud citizen of Tamil Nadu, land of great saints and savants, freedom fighters and scholars. The state is now going to dogs, literally.

As a journalist, I have covered many a political event and interacted closely with politicians of various hue in my career spanning over 25 years in three major publications, including matinee idol-turned politician and founder of AIADMK M G Ramachandran, Congress leader G.K. Moopanar, DMK chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi and BJP leaders such as Jana Krishnamurthy and L. Ganesan. I had interacted with the true nationalist Kamaraj as a student leader and was awe-struck with his simplicity and honesty. As the lead investigator of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination scoop, I had interacted several times with Sonia Gandhi at the Raj Bhavan and was struck at her openness and cordiality.

As a political correspondent, I had been privy to the birth of AIADMK, vertical split of the DMK leading to the formation of MDMK, the breaking of the monolith Congress Party and the merger of smaller parties. Even those politicians pose as though they are hostile to the media in public, share a lot of information in private and exude warmness. I had witnessed a sort of love-hate relationship between the media and the politicians in the state constantly. I had gathered immense material for my research article on “25 years of Dravidian misrule in Tamil Nadu ‘for India Today and had an opportunity to discuss with politician of every hue, off the record to read their minds.

Having said this, I hasten to add that I had failed to comprehend and gauge a politician throughout my career. The person is none other than femme fatale -- Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

We both assumed charge almost at the same time – she as chief minister and I, as bureau chief of India Today in Chennai in 1991. She is the most enigmatic politician I had ever seen in my career. Laloo had to hang his head in shame before her antics. Her latest move to detain the most revered Sankaracharya in a foisted up case speaks volumes of her state and stability of mind. Friends today and foes tomorrow has been her mantra be it Sankaracharya, Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi, Subramanian Swamy or Dr Ramadoss. From an understudy of MGR in politics and his popular heroine in movies and companion in life, she has come a long way in politics.

My first major article on her began on a stormy note. She leveled molestation charge against the then state governor and a seasoned politician Dr M. Chenna Reddy in early 1990s and sending shock waves across the nation. From then, there is no turning back for her. Thinking retrospectively, I am happy that she did not file case against the Acharya on a charge of possessing marijuana that would have prevented him from any further appeal. The BJP government was helpless in seeking the release of one its alliance partner MDMK leader Vaiko when she threw him in the jail for anti-national activities under POTA. She jailed her adopted son V.N. Sudhakaran in prison on a charge of possessing dope when he fell out of her on money matters. She did not stop with that. She followed the same tactics and filed marijuana case against the son-in-law of the then Judge of the Madras High Court Justice A.R. Lakshm anan as he refused to “bail her “out in many of the criminal cases that came up for hearing before his bench. He is now a senior member of the nation’s apex court Bench.

It was during her regime that an attorney who vigorously pursued all her shady deals including the now infamous Tansi land scam was nearly killed. Now a member of parliament of the DMK and a leading attorney R. Shanmugasundaram was brutally attacked by dangerous weapons in 48 places in his body and was lying in hospital bed for six months. This is the body politic of the state.

You want to see another face of the same politician? Acid was thrown on the face of a senior IAS officer V. Chandralekha who refused to yield to government’s pressure in the disinvestment of Southern Petro Chemicals in Chennai. The beautiful woman’s face was disfigured and the kiss-of-death compelled her to enter into politics against Jayalalithaa.

Coming to the Sankaracharya’s case, there could be no doubt that law should take its own course if he was found guilty. But the shape of things suggest that the government had acted in haste without any evidence to settle scores and now indulging in smear campaign to defame the senior seer. The police are literally carrying a manhunt and drags people who were not even remotely connected with the case. I wonder whether someone would come out with a statement in the following weeks that Kanchi Acharya had raped her and gave her a child or deserted her.

People in glass houses should refrain from throwing stones and persons with questionable morality should not indulge in damaging an institution. The media that was bashed up by the same Jayalalithaa is now backing her to the hilt closing its eyes to the reality. The media in Tamil Nadu has assumed the role of a policeman, public prosecutor, jury, judge, jailor and hangman using its 0.5 mm ballpoint pen as the powerful potent weapon little realizing that it would bounce back on them at the most inappropriate time. New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists had named Tamil Nadu as the battleground for genuine media persons wanting to practice investigative journalism. God Save Tamil Nadu and its wonderful people

Religious Leader's Arrest in Killing Incites Holy Men and Hindu Nationalists Across India

By AMY WALDMAN

Published: December 5, 2004

ANCHIPURAM, India - On a recent evening at the Kanchi Mutt, a Hindu monastery and seminary, all seemed as it had always been. Brahmin men with holy paste on their faces and sacred thread on their bare chests prostrated themselves in worship before an elephant. There were pictures everywhere of the institution's smiling pontiff, Jayendra Saraswati, perhaps the highest-profile Hindu leader in India today.

Nothing suggested that the latest pictures of Mr. Saraswati, on television screens and newspapers' front pages nationwide, showed him being led to prison, accused of the murder of a former devotee.

Mr. Saraswati's arrest on Nov. 11, the eve of the Hindu festival Diwali, has startled India and galvanized holy men and Hindu nationalists across the country. They have staged fasts and sit-ins, called strikes and protests, and vowed that divine retribution would be taken.

Supporters call the arrest an attack on Hinduism itself and say that Mr. Saraswati, 71, was a victim of a conspiracy by anti-Hindu politicians trying to capture lower caste or Muslim votes and a state government coveting the spiritual institution's abundant properties.

The police say the only conspiracy was one Mr. Saraswati orchestrated when a group of men on Sept. 3 killed A. Sankararaman, 52, the manager of a temple here who had vocally challenged Mr. Saraswati's accommodation to money and modernity.

The uproar speaks partly of the desire of Hindu nationalists, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., which lost parliamentary elections in May, for an issue to galvanize supporters, and partly to the status of Mr. Saraswati himself.

Presidents and prime ministers have sought his blessings, and his counsel. The B.J.P.-led government asked him to solve the country's most intractable dispute between Hindus and Muslims, although he did not succeed. A phone call from him could secure for a devotee a bank loan, a meeting with a government minister or even, some speculate, a ministerial berth.

Hinduism is a decentralized religion that has no pope, but some say Mr. Saraswati tried to become one. Yet on the streets of this temple town - the swami's seat - the response to his arrest has been strangely muted. Residents say that is because Mr. Saraswati's moral stature had declined here even as his national and international profile rose.

Over the decades, he became less a religious leader than a political power broker - one often associated with the Hindu nationalist movement - and less an ascetic than the chief executive of a vast empire of schools, hospitals, trusts and real estate whose assets are said to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The silence also testifies to India's evolving caste and ethnic politics, of which this southern state, Tamil Nadu, has been the embodiment. Despite Mr. Saraswati's efforts to reach out to lower castes, his institution remains dominated by Brahmins, who constitute the top of the caste hierarchy but politically have been under siege here for decades by lower castes.

The Kanchi Mutt sees itself as serving humanity by ensuring the preservation of the way of life set out in the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures. Its critics see it as preserving an oppressive caste system, backing the Brahmins' priestly role.

The state's chief minister, Jayalalithaa, a Brahmin former film star, once sought Mr. Saraswati's advice. Now, his defenders say, she has authorized his persecution because she sees it as an avenue to lower caste or Muslim votes.

The man who was killed, Mr. Sankararaman, was a strict Brahmin who had once been a devotee of the Kanchi Mutt, but in recent years became a gadfly, or perhaps simply a pest. A strong, even rigid, traditionalist, he became increasingly perturbed by Mr. Saraswati's actions.

Mr. Saraswati's predecessor had been a respected ascetic who, when he left the monastery at all, traveled India on foot. Mr. Saraswati preferred the air-conditioned comfort of cars and the ease of planes, even the private aircraft of the wealthy industrialists who provided the money for many of his projects.

While Mr. Saraswati's predecessor would never allow himself to be in the company of an unmarried woman, said T. A. Kannan, 35, a family friend of the dead man, Mr. Saraswati observed no such strictures.

"He's talking to so many ladies," Mr. Kannan said, disdainfully.

All of this disturbed Mr. Sankararaman, as did the question of what was being done with the monastery's money. Several years ago he became a pseudonymous pamphleteer, openly distributing reams of material critical of Mr. Saraswati. In 2001, when Mr. Saraswati was planning a trip to China, Mr. Sankararaman took him to court, arguing that it was against tradition for a Hindu religious leader to cross the seas.

The trip was canceled, but after that, said Mr. Sankararaman's son, Anand Sharma, 20, the family was no longer welcome at the Kanchi Mutt.

Whether or not Mr. Saraswati ordered the killing, which will be determined in an as yet unscheduled trial before a judge, the well of sympathy here runs shallow. The volunteers in the Kanchi Mutt defend their swami. But on the street, all of those interviewed - including some Brahmins - said they suspected him of involvement in the killing, though that may be because local news reports have been shaped by police leaks.

More than that, residents describe Mr. Saraswati as a man about whom hangs an air of moral dissoluteness and whose accessibility depends on the finances of those who seek him.

S. Subathra, 24, a physiotherapist and a member of an intermediate caste, said she had studied in one of Mr. Saraswati's schools. "From school days itself I don't have any good thought of him," she said. She cited rumors of him having "illegal contacts," and said that Brahmins received preferential treatment at the school and the monastery.

"He's not a representative of Hinduism, or a pillar of it - in any way," she said.

A TIME TO FIGHT BACK. THE FIGHT IS ON!!

by Kalidasan

This is a time of great stress for the followers of the Hindu religion, indeed the Hindu way of life. Tamil Nadu is the worst place for this to happen because in recent decades, the Dravidians of this State have taken upon themselves to pronounce judgements against the Brahmins who have lived there for quite a long, long time. Brahmins have since left the State in droves for plenty of reasons, one of which is the basic fact that it is simply too dangerous to live there.

I have often questioned how HIS HOLINESS - THE SHANKARACHARYA OF KANCHI KAMAKOTI PEETHAM, SRI SRI SRI JAYENDRA SARASWATI SWAMIGAL has thought it fit to continue to function from Tamil Nadu. I have never questioned HIS HOLINESS directly, but i have asked others when the topic comes up and the answer has always been that it has been tradition. Brahmins are disliked in this state where the people appear to well educated but are crass and lowly in their dealings with others who they recognize to be Brahmins or out of state. I have never had a pleasant experience there and despite being born there, i do not care much for that state. It is therefore an irony that a Brahmin like Jayalalitha gets to rule over the Dravidians who shamelessly worship her like a demi-god. These same Dravidians then turn around and curse Brahmins and of course our Periavaal. But, in our wildest dreams, we could not have expected this woman of suspect moral character to take such lowly a step of arresting our Periavaal and then putting him up in Jail like a common criminal.

Their initial charge of murder is unproven and will never be proven now that the criminals involved have retracted their statements. The Tamil Nadu government is throwing a lot of mud at HIS HOLINESS hoping that some of that will stick. They have roped in an unsuspecting out of stater - Mr. Tulsi to prosecute their case in court. They know only too well that most if not all North Indians have little idea as to how the jokers in politics in this state really function. A lot of feinting happens and all of it is show and the DMK and AIADMK keep each other happy through this idiotic process. Karunanidhi and his henchmen disrobe [albeit partially] the then out of power Jayalalitha and she returns the favor by dragging Karunanidhi in the middle of night shouting from his bed. Turns out that this fellow was putting on a show and the police obliged. The disrobing incident raised few eyebrows. North Indians do not understand that the police have long become totally subservient servants of the politicians and not the public that they are supposed to serve. They have mastered the art of dancing a wierd game where they know that the actors take their turns with power and the way they execute their jobs will ensure that they do not become roadkill in the process. Such is the nature of the beast.

This peculiarity of Tamil Nadu politics which really won't be ever completely understood outside that woe-begotten state is that both sides are really happy with this arrangment. One side can never completely wipe out the other and each gets enough opportunity to heap so called humiliation to the other side when the opportunity presents itself. Therefore, as Mr. Tulsi will NOT understand, this game actually presents a sense of satisfaction to the perpetrator who gets some kind of orgasmic pleasure out of this. The victim suffers in some manner fitting the situation of the moment and then retaliates in like manner just enough to be able to pull back without striking completely. The police happily oblige and in most cases, the media sadly obliges too. The problem is that Jayalalitha decided that OUR HOLINESS was fair game too and for reasons best known to her, felt that HIS HOLINESS should become part of this game. In her warped mind, she thought that the events would follow their own course, the police would oblige in their own predictable way, the media would pour on the thick sleaze and the people would recognize the game for what it is and offer no resistance and life would return to normal after some time. Unfortunately, she has miscalculated miserably in this particular instance and she will live to rue the day she took the decision to humiliate HIS HOLINESS.

HIS HOLINESS in essence is not a Brahmin, at least not any more. He is a Sanyasin, one who has transcended Brahminhood and gone on to the next level and therefore now, a true and most highly respected representative of Hinduism. It might be true that in a manner similar to temples all across Tamil Nadu and indeed all across India, the Kanchi Matham is a holy place that makes it easier for Brahmins to obtain access but that is hardly something that can be considered a good enough reason to try to destroy the very foundations of a great religion. Caste is a socio-economic, political and religious problem that will take a lot of time to transcend, but this is hardly the time or place to attempt to use that as an excuse to destroy the good name of the Matham and HIS HOLINESS.

It is all the more sad and regrettable that this particular SHANKARACHARYA - SRI SRI JAYENDRA SARASWATI SWAMIGAL is considered by Mr. Tulsi as the "noblest of Brahmins" because he has done much much more than anyone in recent living memory to further the cause of non-brahmins and the downtrodden. He has visited Harijan villages, interacted with the downtrodden non-brahmin community such as the Hindu Munnani and further their causes like no other JAGADGURU. He has fought for national integration and Hindu-Muslim unity. Mr. Tulsi is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time and as a Sikh, really has no locus standi to speak to Brahminism.

HIS HOLINESS would probably rank in Hindu History as likely the last progressive Hindu religious leader who took courageous steps to make the best of the current realities in the nation. Muslims invaded and occupied the country and then live side by side with us despite the creation of Pakistan. There was NO REASON for HIS HOLINESS to permit a Mosque to be built on Matham land. But HIS HOLINESS allowed this to happen for the sake of communal harmony. The Muslims did not for a moment consider it awkward and odd to build their Mosque on Hindu religious land and that too right opposite the very bastion of the Hindu religion. Instead they were full of grattitude, attended the samadhi of the PARAMACHARYA and are more vocal about the need to release our JAGADGURU than Hindu's themselves. The PARAMACHARYA was a walking GOD in his own right but mostly in a spiritual sense.

Our JAGADGURU - SRI SRI JAYENDRA SARASWATI SWAMIGAL is a walking GOD not only in a spiritual sense but more so in a contemporary socio, economic and religious setting that shows his true character that exudes tolerance of other faiths, other views and other values in a manner that is impossible for ordinary humans like you and me to fathom. Talk of a Muslim and the gut reaction is a memory of the Somnath Temple massacre of several centuries ago and therefore uncontrollable initial anger. Can you imagine a lesser mortal do all the things our JAGADGURU has done, with so much love and affection for the rival religious masses?

Sanyasa is a very tough thing to do. At the tender age of 19, HIS HOLINESS shed the material world as we know it and symbolically cut the sacred thread to signify the transcending of his Brahminical roots. Tried and tested methods for enhancing his spiritual, moral and emotional purity that has been handed down for thousands of years ensured that he is true to his calling. Lifetime celebacy is a very very tough thing to do, but has its very own rewards. Enormous spiritual power is obtained in an amazingly short period of time by remaining celibate and this transforms the entire human being. I will give you a hint. Abstain from sex for about three weeks [of course no masturbation either] and you will feel the slow and steady heat rising within you and the sudden explosion of a undescribable power will overcome your whole body with an awesome fury that is bound to surprise you. Think about doing this for a lifetime and you will begin to recognize why celibacy is so vital to true Sanyasa. Other aspects of Sanyasa such as eating just enough food [free of salt and spices] required to live would be impossible for ordinary mortals to continue for such an extended period of time. It simply just transforms the individual. Other aspects of Sanyasa such as eating just enough food [free of salt and spices] required to live would be impossible for ordinary mortals to continue for such an extended period of time. Having reached that new spiritual plane, it is just not possible for someone to step down that spiritual pedestal. It just does not happen.


By simply accusing HIS HOLINESS of a total untruth, Ms. Anuradha Ramanan has destroyed forever the coming generations of her offspring and all that follows. The cheap, fictional and unbelievable manner of her accusation makes her character a laughing stock. Unfortunately, the media is lapping it all up and distributing her version of imaginary events with total glee.The disturbing aspect to all of this is the slowly rising circulation of a rumor on the Internet about the lesbian relationship between Jayalalitha, her cohort - Sashikala and the hitherto unknown third member of that team - Ms. Anuradha Ramanan. Initially, i did not know that she was widowed, and therefore found it hard to believe that she could lead a bisexual life without being discovered by her husband. But, the rumor is that Sashikala forced Jayalalitha's hand during a bedtime conversation and the two of them then blackmailed Ms. Ramanan into providing more ammunition to the media by concocting a shoddy story.

Indian Lesbians by definition are unattactive females who find it necessary to satisfy their human needs by finding others with similar backgrounds and similar profiles. Would there be any reason to feel surprised that this triumvirate is a bunch of extremely obese, unattactive, self proclaimed high class Brahmin ladies by birth with remarkably similar looks? Ms. Ramanan claims that she decided to come out with this accusation simply because HIS HOLINESS is already involved in an ongoing criminal accusation. She claims that she waited 14 years out of respect to the Matham seat. Why did she come out with her accusation when the criminals originally booked for the murder started to recant their confessions and the police case was crumbling? If she was that interested in the welfare of the Matham, she should have understood by virtue of her education and her erudiction that now was not the time to uncover an old accusation that would make no difference to the original charge of murder except to muddy the waters further. I am sure that she knew and knows very well that this is a slanderous accusation that is likely to sway many undecided bhaktas simply because her reputation is ironically that of a decent lady and a decent writer.

This lady has refused to press charges, but that is totally beside the point. I am sure that India's laws are the laughing stock of the world, but i am sure that because our laws have their origins in English Common Law, there must be a Statute of Limitations or similar clause somewhere. You just cannot bring a 14 year old alleged incident out into the open, dump it on someone, especially someone as highly regarded as HIS HOLINESS and expect to file a charge as if it happened yesterday. This would never have happened in a western society such as the United States. If it had, Ms. Ramanan would have been sued so badly that she would live out the rest of her natural life in abject penury! I was shocked at the reaction of a lot of my friends who started to feel that the initial charge of murder paled in comparison to the new charge of voyuerism and illicit sex that had been levelled against HIS HOLINESS by a lady of seemingly upright upbringings. I was saddened considerably by the fact that this new accusation was eating into their peace of mind.

The lack of law and order in India and particularly in Tamil Nadu makes this all the more serious because there are no checks and balances. For instance, it should be easy to ascertain whether a magazine was really about to be published in 1992, why and whether that project got nixed in the bud and whether those alleged meetings really took place. HIS HOLINESS is an affable, gentle, kind and highly approachable person and it is ironic that this personality trait of HIS is probably the reason why a charge like this can be levelled against HIM. I recently visited HIS HOLINESS in August of this year with my wife and children and he posed for umpteen photographs with us.

I have released only one on this blog for reasons of privacy, but the fact remains that HIS BLESSINGS really count. My family and myself owe everything that we have today to the blessings that HIS HOLINESS showered on our family in 1977 and for that HE shall have our eternal grattitude. Everything that i have today - wife, gifted children, a six figure salary at a Fortune 100 firm in the United States, and peace of mind is due to the blessings of HIS HOLINESS. I feel helpless at times that i cannot do more for MY JAGADGURU - OUR JAGADGURU. This blog is one way of demonstrating my eternal grattitude to HIS HOLINESS and an opportunity to worship at HIS FEET.

I will continue to write about my reminiscences and hopefully touch a few hearts. I will intersperse with commentary such as this one in order to voice my opinion. Ultimately, as the "Tamil Nadu Game" unmistakably ends according to an oft repeated scripted routine, this thing will "go away" in the minds of those evil doers. But to you and me, this will be a memory of a lifetime - one that will not be easily washed away, if at all. Please join me in a holy crusade and do what ever you can to voice your opinion. Please post your comments, write on this blog, create your own blog, whatever, but participate. I am mulling over the creation of a website that will take donations for the sake of defending HIS HOLINESS if a court battle takes place. I think that this is highly unlikely although it is presented as a favored option for everyone. The reason is that it is one piece of the game that is not as well scripted as the other pieces and Jayalalitha understands that it will be too hot to carry that far. I hope that she does not remain in power to make that decision.

JAYA JAYA SHANKARA, HARA HARA SHANKARA. MAY GOD BLESS US ALL.

Appeal to Transfer Seer Case

If you feel that there is a political conspiracy behind the arrest of Shankaracharya and justice is being denied to him, please write to Chief Justice of India for immediate transfer of this case out of Tamil Nadu.

Remember the outcry over the Ansal Plaza shootout in Delhi when the police had killed a couple of terrorists? Or how Ishrat Jahan was portrayed as an innocent college girl after she was killed with her armed Islamist associates by the Gujarat police? In each case, the 'Pseudo-secularists' disbelieved and discredited the authorities, deliberately picked holes in the official version and declared the terrorists as innocent, even before the trial.

In contrast, the stories on Shankaracharya are based entirely on the assumption of “guilt”. The “Secularists” have happily accepted the TN govt's version of the story and are publishing baseless reports without providing any evidence. Suddenly, the trigger-happy policemen who are devils while dealing with terrorists, Jihadis and the ISI agents have turned into epitome of virtue.

This letter is addressed to Honorable Chief Justice of India, Dept of Legal Affairs, National Human Rights Commission, President of India, Prime Minister of India, Opposition leader, TN Chief Minister and AP Chief Minister, Madras High Court (what they can do?)

Act before other religious institutions come under similar attack….Share this page with your friends to strengthen our collective voice.

Read here what difference such letter can make?
Email ids & Sample letter is given below. You may modify it as required: how to copy/paste?

Email ids: sclsc@nic.in, meenarl@nic.in, ionhrc@hub.nic.in, presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, pmosb@pmo.nic.in, advanilk@sansad.nic.in, cmcell@tn.gov.in, cmap@ap.nic.in, hcourt@tn.nic.in

Start of the Sample letter --------------------------------

Subject: Request to Transfer the Shankaracharya case out of Tamil Nadu

TO: Honorable Chief Justice of India,

I am writing this letter as our country is watching in disbelief, the unfolding political drama since the arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya.

The manner in which Kanchi Shankaracharya was arrested, detained and interrogated by the TN police have left millions of Indians with the feeling that justice is being denied in this case. Several media reports clearly suggest that this is a politically motivated, vindictive arrest with a strong possibility of political conspiracy against the institution of Shankaracharya and the Mutt.

First of all, the Shankaracharya was arrested in Hyderabad and flown to Chennai without having access to his lawyers for several hours. The allegations by TN police that the Shankaracharya could have fled the country are totally baseless and ridiculous in the view of the fact that he is 71 years old, suffers from diabetes, reportedly does not have a passport and has not traveled abroad in his entire life. Were the Supreme-Court guidelines followed in the arrest, detention and interrogation of the Acharya?

The prison rules in Tihar jail are suitably changed to accommodate the dietary requirements (including timings) for Muslim convicts during Ramzan. The Shankaracharya is merely an innocent till proven guilty. But no such consideration has been shown to him so far. Why?

Even before the trail has started, few of the accused have admitted before the court that their confessions to the police (that were used to arrest Acharya) were obtained under extreme torture. Key suspect, Rajni, told the court that “his teeth and hands were broken” in the custody. Another accused, Kathiravan, said he could not write because the police had broken his hands. They have pointed finger to the police as fabricators of the case itself!

In another serious contradiction, the TN police had all along claimed that “Srirangam Usha" was involved in the murder of temple manager Shankar Raman in which the seer is the first accused. After two days of questioning, police failed to find any evidence of Usha’s involvement in the case. The prosecution had to turn around and declare her innocent on Dec 01.

It would be improper to include all the details in this letter, but several such contradictions and examples of possible fabrications can be found in various reports here:

http://www.indiacause.com/Cause/C30_Shankaracharya.htm

It is a very sad state of our nation where, on one hand, we have a minister in the central govt having charge of Jharkhand massacre on him, we also have ministers that were involved in the Genocide of thousands of innocent Sikhs in 1984.........And on the other hand we have this extremely shocking situation where the state police seem to have fixed the Acharya as the culprit from day one and begun collecting the evidence to that effect. With the developments so far, it appears that the TN police are acting with the intent other than providing the justice in this case.

With the state govt apparently misusing the law and order machinery to fabricate the evidence, I do not feel that the Shankaracharya can get the justice at the hands of TN police in TN court. In my view, the justice is possible only if this case is transferred out of Tamil Nadu or handed over to CBI.

In view of all the above, I would request the Supreme Court of India to consider this collective request by the online Indian community for intervening in this case and to consider transferring the case to a different state or to the CBI at the earliest. Tamil Nadu police should not be allowed to investigate in this case any further. Also, Andhra Pradesh should not be considered for this transfer, because that state was involved in the arrest.

I hope the law is equal for all in our country and I wish justice be done in this case.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Country of Residence

END of the Sample letter --------------------------------

The Real Shankaracharya

by Shobha Vasudevan

November 22, 2004

On Diwali, the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswathi, was arrested on charges of murder. On the next day, the title of an article in a national daily read 'Seer heads 5,000 crore empire. Another article in a leading national newspaper read, 'Of high priests and their lust for more power.' He has been variously described as high profile, influential and the seventh most powerful man in India.

The Shankaracharya is in custody, the police are on a wild evidence hunt, and the media is marauding a large cut of the spoils. The seer's high profile status has somehow been conveniently used to imply that he is a goon-wielding, power kooky tycoon. The assets of the Kanchi Math are being referred to as if they were the acharya's personal possessions, and every one of his past actions is being interpreted according to the revised image that the press has decided to give him.

While the mainstream media sensationalises the latest newsmaker, often indulging in misrepresentation, let us try to examine the Shankaracharya in the eyes of millions of his followers. The Shankaracharya is a sanyasi. Sanyas, as all history books will tell you, is the last stage prescribed by the Hindu way of life. The current Shankaracharya, however, like others in his monastic lineage, did not live the other stages before dedicating his life to asceticism. He was divined by the previous Shankaracharya as the successor to the title, at whose behest he was given away to the Math by his father.

As a 19-year-old boy, he stood in hip-deep waters and embraced asceticism, pledging detachment from every material pursuit. Ever since, he has eaten minimally for subsistence, not slept on a comfortable bed and not indulged in any sensual pleasure. He has no next of kin; he severed ties even with his parents. Austerity in the absolute sense. For more than 50 years, he has lived such a life in complete public view. He is a scholar of wide attainments and great versatility who has mastered the Rig Veda, the Dharma shastras, the Upanishads under all the Veda Shakas, Vyakarana, Vedanta, Nyaya and Tarka shastras through the course of his life.

All the articles that holler about the 'high profile' pontiff do not devote any newsprint to how he has utilised his position of authority. Jayendra Saraswathi, after taking over as the Shankaracharya, is singularly responsible for opening 55 schools and a string of hospitals, professional colleges, child care centres and universities throughout the country. The services in these institutions are offered free of charge or at subsidised rates, and benefit large sections of society. In addition, charitable trusts for aiding poor families, old-age homes, rural development trusts, food donation projects, and research projects have also been flagged off by the acharya. Although the seer is perceived as a Hindu Brahmin icon, the condemnation of his arrest by the Muslim and Christian clergy is a comforting testimony to the tolerant, secular face of Hinduism that he has presented in crises.

The Shankaracharya wears saffron according to the canon prescribed for a sanyasi, thereby giving the media and the literati, an easy stereotype. So, the Shankaracharya gets pigeonholed with the paan-chewing, debauched politician who views the ochre as lucre. Hinduism's lack of rigidity does not prevent all and sundry from donning saffron. What is unfortunate is that we are not able to distinguish between a genuine ascetic and a masquerader.

For the most poignant players in this drama, the followers of the acharya, these are nightmarish times. Within a matter of hours, a man, who for many years, had graced their puja with the Gods, had been disgraced. The episode itself, with the unceremonious arrest of the venerable religious leader on an auspicious day, after a yagna, by commandos, was a rude jolt.

To exacerbate the wounds, the acharya, a 70-year-old diabetic, was held in custody for the outrageous reason that he would abscond to Nepal. He was not allowed to cook his own food, despite his religious caveats that prohibit food from outside, since it was alleged that he would attempt suicide. He was denied transfer to a hospital or house, unlike most high profile captives. His bail application was adjourned and he was remanded to judicial custody.

To the followers who have seen the Shankaracharya in all his glory, the image of an old man with failing health, drinking ragi porridge given to prisoners, and performing pujas in a cell, is heart-rending. Yet, unlike any other community in the world that can speak up when it is hurt, they find themselves mute. Before they could feel the impact of the shock, the VHP and the rest of the Hindutva brigade were already well on their way to politicising the issue and promoting party agendas. Worse yet, due to their public perception as extremist troublemakers, the support of these parties in this issue is a liability for the followers of the acharya.

For them, this intensely personal moment of distress does not have a sounding board. The denigration of one of the last bastions of their faith has left them disoriented, victimised and hurt. Their grievances will never get print footage, as they will be viewed with saffron coloured glasses and quickly branded as 'right wing' or 'fundamentalist.' Since their cause is not as fashionable as those of large dam project victims, people of alternate sexuality or people in another country's war, they are media-untouchables.

The overriding concerns in this issue are its actual intent and impact. The arrest of a religious leader is unprecedented. If the seer is proven guilty, the law will take its course of action as it rightfully should, for every citizen. However, speculation is rife on the political machinations and the frame-and-blame-game in the case. If the seer is proven not guilty, then where do we go from here? If this case is a political conspiracy, what is to become of the millions of devotees of the man? Do the politicians enmeshed in the throes of the immediate, understand the cultural and moral impact of this issue, and the possible damage that they have done?

In the smutty power and revenge match between individuals, along with the arrested seer, a 2,500-year-old institution has also been sullied, an institution that has stood the test of time, of cultural invasions and of religious warfare. The Shankaracharya is not a person, but a sacrosanct position of eminence in people's minds. After this episode, irrespective of its outcome, will the devotee still feel the sanctity of this position and this institution? Will he not feel demoralised and despondent about his faith, against the overwhelming backdrop of scepticism? Will millions of our citizens, with a beaten spirit, be able to place credence and hope in a leader again?

Shobha Vasudevan is a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin

The kanchi Conspiracy by Christians?

KANCHI CONSPIRACY BY CHRISTIANS
And the parties called Bushmen Munnetta Kazhakam and All India Bushmen Munnetta Kazhakam

Today India is in a greater crisis than ever before. Our nation is controlled by Antonia Maino, the daughter of an Italian Fascist who came in through the backdoor. Her involvement in Bofors, smuggling of antiques from India to her Italian shops, are no concern to the pliable Congressmen whom she controls. In Manmohan Singh she got the ultimate pliable and controllable PM. It was Manmohan as Reserve Bank governor, who had permitted against the advice of RAW, the opening of the collapsed Pakistan’s ISI Bank also known as the cocaine bank, the ‘Bank of Credit and Commerce International’ in India in return for a paltry foreign scholarship for his daughter. Manmohan can be said as India’s first ISI linked PM. Antonia Maino is a national security threat, and she conspired with foreign agents and effected the arrest of Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi. She had put christians in control of congress and the party has become the den of traitors, helpers to christian missionaries, and muslim terrorists.


Coming from a nation known for its Mafia, Maino is now testing the waters in India with the most outrageous arrest of a Hindu Seer, to see how Indians are going to react. Arrest was done so meticulously from behind so that no one will see her role in it. A series of young congress leaders who could have been trouble makers for her died in very natural accidents on Sundays. BJP leaders were framed and discredited not in one but in two operations, with miniature cameras from Italian spy agency, and with the help of pliable journalists, spying christian officials of Home ministry and with funds routed via Dubai like in a terrorist operation. During the last election the church had sent volunteers in many cities for house to house vote canvassing and many church leaders openly called the christians to vote for Antonia Maino. The present arrest of the Seer is facilitated by the networking christian bureaucrats for Maino and her next Sunday victims could the leaders of parties like DMK, AIADMK, Biju Janatha Dal etc. the blame of which can be laid at the door of Hindus. Once the so called Dravidian party leaders are out, congress can take full control of Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalitha the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state in India had ordered the arrest of a Hindu Seer, the Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati in a draconian manner in the night on the Hindu festival day of Dipawali the 11th of November 2004 alleging that the 71 year old Seer had murdered an ex-employee of his mutt by name Sankararaman working in another temple in Kancheepuram. The arrest of the Seer was done in such a haste to insult the Hindu majority community in India and is seen as the result of meticulous planning by the fanatic christian missionaries in India aided by some foreign spy agencies. The arrest of the Seer is seen as ordered by Antonia Maino, the Super PM of India. Seer was arrested in Andhra Pradesh to avenge the arrest of a Muslim terrorist ‘Maulana Nseeruddin’ on the night of October 31st 2004, by the Gujarat Police in Hyderabad for the murder of an ex-minister of Gujarat, Haren Pandya. Nseeruddin is the president of Tehreek Taifooz Sher-e-islam and have links with Lashkr-e-toiba (LeT). His supporters are activists of the notorious Jehad-o-Shahadat (DJS), based in Hyderabad that had trained thousands of women Jihadis for decades and was beheading Hindus. DJS was abducting people in the city bus stops, for over a year after Gujarat riots, offering free lifts, take the persons to isolated Hyderabad suburbs, lift their dhothi to make sure that they are not circumcised and indeed are Hindus, and then cut their heads off in standard Islamic fashion. Hundreds were killed like this and it came to light when one of the victims with injuries reported the crime to the police. Chandrababu Naidu hushed up the whole incident.

The Seer was arrested by sending an armed group of policemen carrying assault rifles, in government planes thus violating government regulations. The police team traveled without the permission from the Director General of Civil aviation and without filing a flight plan which are mandatory. These things and secrecy of the arrest, indicates the operational clearance at the PM level. Seer was held in an operation similar to the arrest of an international terrorist to discredit Hindus. The method of arrest violated all Supreme Court guidelines and was a clear case of human right violation. The Seer could have been comfortably arrested in Chennai, but Antonia Maino wanted to show that a Hindu spiritual leader was arrested in Andhra Pradesh ruled by Congress on the Hindu holiday of Dipawali. . Full co-operation was provided in Andhra by the Christian Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy, who sport his Hindu name in public, by deputing another christian policeman by name B.R.Dumas who is the SP of Mehaboobnagar. For the Gujarat police team this overt help was not extended and consequently the Gujarat policemen had to fire at the attacking muslim crowd, in which one muslim was killed, before they could arrest the Muslim terrorist.

Antonia Maino alias Sonia forced the Hindu Governor of Tamil Nadu to resign from his post. In his place she had posted a Sikh as the Governor of Tamil Nadu. Next Antonia Maino alias Sonia shifted the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, Subhashan Reddy to Kerala. Tamil Nadu is left without a Chief Justice and a new CJ is expected by November 2004 end. Apparently Maino might have offered the closing of the cases against Jayalalitha in return for giving the spiritual head of Hindu society on a platter. Our nation is famous for Jaichands and Jayalalitha has proved to be one now.

In normal course Seer’s arrest should have been carried out only after capturing the gang leader of the hit team known as ‘Appu’, alias Krishnaswamy, a well known history sheeter and a DMK activist. Police have made no effort to track Appu or arrest him and he is said to be in USA. Appu and one of the many wives of DMK chief Karunanidhi, ‘Dayalu Ammal’ are said to be connected. When Karunanidhi was the chief minister, Appu was allotted one room in the house of Dayalu Ammal when Dayalu stayed at the Oliver road house. Appu was the henchman of the former DMK minister Arcot Veerasamy of the Karunanidhi cabinet. Appu was the uncrowned king of the rowdies of Chennai. Police claims that he was the gang leader of the team that carried out the murder. So the brain behind the murder could only be DMK, Karunanidhi and Arcot Veerasamy. Their involvement is also clear from the fact that DMK and the media controlled by it were asking as to why the government is not arresting the culprits. DMK party was organizing street protests and media coverage on Sankararaman’s murder from day one. The murder occurred in September and in the normal course, it takes months and years to complete an investigation in India. There are hundreds of murders in Tamil Nadu every month and a party like DMK’s insistence on the arrest of murder culprits of an insignificant Hindu temple employee is very surprising. Sankararaman had written letters saying that if ever he is murdered, it will be by Kanchi Shankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati. Apparently DMK chief or some one had seen an opportunity to fix AIADMK and its supremo Jayalalitha and weaken her political base with a single murder. The main policeman who investigated the crime is very close to Karunanidhi and it is not surprising that the effort of police was concentrated in framing the Seer from the beginning. The police have not even questioned Karunanidhi, his wife Dayalu, or Arcot Veerasamy to find out the whereabouts of Appu. The selection of christians and crypto christians for the investigation and prosecution is seen in this case. (Crypto christians are those who on government record remains as Hindu for the reservation benefit, but they are converted to christianity for generations. An example is the case of Ajit Jogi. Even students who get reservation seats in all IITs fall in this category of Christian fraud) The super secret way the flight plan for the armed policemen was cleared by the Prime Minister, etc, all points to a conspiracy hatched by the christians, congress chief Antonia Maino alias Sonia, and Karunanidhi. External agencies funded the operation and provided safe hideout for the gang leader Appu in USA. Once the utility of DMK is over in this conspiracy, and in the absence of Karunanidhi, Congress will blame Karunanidhi and take over the DMK cadre. Jayalalitha’s AIADMK is out of public favor if the last parliamentary election is an indication.

The very nature of the murder of Sankararaman was for fixing the Seer. The modus operandi adopted was to kill Sankararaman is revealing. Murder was in broad daylight to create maximum sensation. If the murder was a revenge killing to eliminate the nuisance value it would have been done very discreetly and without leaving any evidence by the Appu alias Krishnaswamy and his assistant by name Chinna alias Rajni whom the police claim as the professional killers who committed the murder. Both Appu and Chinna are at large. But when DMK chief Karunanidhi and Antonia Maino alias Sonia put pressure on Jayalalitha for the arrest of Seer, Jayalalitha’s trusted policemen had booked another Rajni, a small time offender and tortured him to confess to the crime. The police showed some Rupee bundles issued by the ICICI bank, and claimed that it was the money paid by the Seer for the murder. Later when the Kanchi Mutt made public statement that they had no bank account with ICICI, the police was in a fix and they are looking for all devotees living in and around Kancheepuram, who had ICICI bank account. One basic question anyone will ask is about the type of policemen of Tamil Nadu. Are these policemen. are so corrupt that they are worse than criminals?. The answer is yes. One Senior christian IPS man, when fully drunk claimed that one of his duty was to procure college girls for Jayalalitha as Jayalalitha is a lesbian. This revelation came in a Dubai party hosted by the Keralite christian Sunny Varkey of our own English high schools fame,.

It is looking like DMK and AIADMK are vying with each other to please the anti-national catholic Antonia Maino by fixing the Hindu Seer on a Dipawali. This is like arresting Shahi Imam on Id-ul-fitr or Pope on a Christmas day. Putting the Seer in Vellore jail which is a well known christian centre is at the orders of Antonia Maino to insult further the Hindu community. Jayalalitha wants to join the Congress coalition in the next election to retain her power. Out of power she could permanently inside the smelly prison of Chennai.

K Premkumar, Superintendent of Police of Kancheepuram was transferred to Cuddalore as SP on 2 September, 2004. Sankararaman was murdered on 3rd September, 2004. A Christian by name S. Davidson Devasirvatham was posted at Kancheepuram as the Superintendent of Police. Five men went to Kancheepuram Varadarajaswamy temple and stabbed Sankararaman at around 5.30 pm, but two clerks Ganesh and Duraikannan, sitting in the same room, when murder was going on, claim that they shut their eyes and did not see the faces of any of the murderers. Davidson Devasirvatham investigated and implicated Seer in the crime. K.Doraiswamy who is a Christian was the Public Prosecutor and he calls the Seer a “CRIMINAL" even before the trial. He argued against providing pooja facilities to the Seer. Public Prosecutor christian K Doraisamy also said that he was embarrassed by the presence of a former Madras High Court judge T S Arunachalam in the court during the initial hearing. A christian advocate Senthil Kumar, opposing the grant of bail to Seer filed a petition alleging that the Shankaracharya, if released on bail, might harass witnesses. He was also one of the rowdies that attacked the Hindu protesters at the court. Another christian advocate ‘Wilfred Prakash filed a frivolous habeas corpus writ petition in the Madras high court seeking the release of Seer. Many christian advocates of Chennai High court demonstrated with placards decrying the murder as well as demanding the closure of the 2000 year old Hindu Mutt. All these indicated a massive christian planning behind the murder and the arrest of Seer. The christian lawyers of Madras High court shouted slogans against granting bail to the Seer. It was not long ago that a Judicial officer had issued an arrest warrant against the Indian president A.P.J.Abdul Kalam after accepting bribe. The demonstration by the Chennai christian lawyers against the granting of bail to the Seer, speaks volumes of the level to which the legal profession has gone down in India. The anti Shankaracharya christian lawyer protesters along with the Christian NGOs attacked the Hindu activists who were protesting the arrest of the Seer. Many were hurt in that incident.

On talking to constables outside Vellore jail it was gathered that policemen had come drunk in celebration of the arrest of Seer. They misbehaved with the Seer and one constable said that the officials in the name of interrogation made fun of Seer and asked him if he would share their chicken curry. According to some constables the Shankaracharya was silent throughout and has not talked anything. The police officials partied by drinking that night. Late in the night one of the senior policemen slapped the Seer repeatedly asking the Seer to confess the crime. On 19th November 2004, the Magistrate in Kancheepuram, G.Uthamaraj remanded the Seer for three days in Police custody for the custodial torture.

Kathiravan and Rajni were brought to the Kancheepuram magistrate’s court for extending their judicial remand on November 24. What they told the court reads like that is reported in military dictatorships, like illegal confinement for 9 days for the Kathiravan, brutal torture, getting signature on blank sheets for manufacturing evidence by the christian public prosecutor along with the christian policemen. It is very difficult to imagine that this can happen in a state ruled by a Brahmin lady who herself was tortured in jail. (This reminds me of the innocent Brahmin girls from Antop Hill area of Mumbai who in their need to better the life style was willing to do anything. These were later ended up as part time prostitutes of Arabs in the Gulf). The prosecution case has collapsed after the two key witnesses have stated in open court that they were kept in solitary confinement and tortured until they signed blank sheets of paper that were later turned into confessional statements. With this retraction of the charges made against the Kanchi Seer by two key witnesses, Jayalalitha within two days hurriedly shuffled the police personal to avoid embarrassment. As ordered by Antonia Maino, she even upgraded the post of Chief of Tamil Nadu Intelligence wing from Asst DGP to DGP, promoted and posted a christian A.X.Alexander who was shunted out by her in 2001, so that Antonio Maino can keep an eye on Tamil Nadu.

In his truthful and the cutting edge analysis the well known Shri. S.Gurumurthy had laid open the helplessness of the peace loving Hindu community, which is being targeted by inimical forces in the governments and media, and says that only funeral is left for the arrest episode. Janata Party president Dr Subramaniam Swamy has said that the arrest and remand of Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi was "clearly premature". He later stated that Antonia Maino had had conspired with external agencies and put pressure on Jayalalitha, who is vulnerable because of the court cases against her on corruption charges, to destroy the Kanchi Mutt. This is part of the Christian missionary agenda. The churches are sore that the Kanchi Shankaracharya has been successful in starting schools and building temples in Dalit areas coveted by the missionaries for their conversion activities. One sees the position of Jayalalitha as similar to that of beauty queens, be it in Jammu or in Kerala, where they were video taped having sex, and with that they were blackmailed to become part of a sex racket serving VVIPs. In Kerala such a victim was poisoned to death in the hospital recently, and in the case of Jayalalitha, only time can reveal her fate.

There was an earlier murder attempt on two devotees, before the Sankararaman’s murder. In that attempt both the devotees, Madhavan and S.Radhakrishnan survived the murder attempt. Conveniently the police never cracked the case even though they claim now that it was carried out by the same Appu gang. Had that murder attempt was successful the Seer would have been framed for their murder earlier. It was well known that the police never bothered to crack this case earlier as that attempt did not result in death. New arrest warrant was issued against the Seer on this murder attempt to trap him in the notorious anti people legal system of India, by Jayalalitha.

The arrest of the Seer is unforgivable affront to the Hindu community. .Hindus are not violent like muslims and not networked or funded by external agencies like christians These alien religions want to convert the whole of India. The small differences among the Hindus are utilized by these external and foreign religions, christianity and islam. This is the reason for centuries of subjugation of Hindus by small groups of violent foreigners. The imprisonment of Seer on murder charges, and his police custody was to manufacture evidence and insult Hindus. The anti Hindu media funded by muslim and christian nations had convicted the Seer. Today power brokers are prostitutes, film actors and actresses, pimps, thieves, mass murderers, fake currency and fake stamp paper printers, muslim terrorists etc. Even Judges like J.P.Singh had to ask the help of notorious terrorist Dawood Ibrahim to collect back the amounts due to him.
Jayalalitha the film actress turned politician who came up from the casting couch of yesteryear tamil film world, was elected to power by the film crazy tamilians. She is the symbol of corruption goddess if the court cases against her are any indication. It is rumored that she had paid Rs 10 crore to the judge to get a favorable verdict in one of the cases against her. Supreme court had ordered the transfer of cases pending against her out of Tamil Nadu to prevent such influence. When Karunanidhi was in power in 1996, his policemen had arrested Jayalalitha, systematically tortured and lodged her in a stinking cell of Chennai Central Jail. Jayalalitha when in power retaliated in 2001 by arresting 78 year old Karunanidhi shortly after midnight, and tortured him. Union Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran was injured and was taken to the police station. Murasoli Maran was later admitted to the Apollo Hospital and eventually passed away. The inactive BJP PM of that time did not have the guts to dismiss Jayalalitha government nor was able to even transfer three policemen who tortured the central ministers as demanded by the DMK. That eventually led to the parting of ways between ruling partner DMK with BJP and cost dearly for BJP when it lost the last parliamentary election. (One of the cops in that was a muslim Mohamed Ali and the present UPA government had arrested him for his involvement in the Rs 60000 crore fake stamp paper scam run by Telgi.).

With more vigor Jayalalitha over reached herself and arrested in her characteristic fashion, the Hindu Seer who is the symbol of Hindu religion DMK appears to have some kind of role in the murder of Sankararaman. The Justice Jain Commission, which investigated the conspiracy behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, in its interim report, stated that Karunanidhi, who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu during 1989-91, had links with the assassins. DMK was seen forcing this issue of murder of Sankararaman. Only future can tell us, as to where these events can lead the destinies of Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, and Antonia Maino who are the principal actors in the Seer’s arrest.

Tamil politicians are from film world and their low background, lack of education and inferiority complex reflect on what is going on in Tamil Nadu politics today. The present arrest of Seer is the result of a filmy type plot, with external funding and organized with the help of christian bureaucrats in Chennai. (One is forced to remember the case of Mathew of Home ministry who was spying for Tehelka, charge sheeted by CBI, but rehabilitated now by Antonia Maino). Tamil Nadu policemen are known for custodial rape, abduction and rape and corruption and a bunch of them currently are being investigated by CBI for abduction and rape of a woman ‘Sivakasi Jayalakshmi”. As per reports she was even taken to Paneer Selvam who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu lawyers are still worse and are like N.Guhan and Namo Narayan who on 16th Nov 2004 tried to rape a 45 year old woman in the Chennai High court complex. The Police force and the judiciary will do anything for Jayalalitha. Where will this arrest episode will lead? The conspirators have achieved their end result. Next they will blame Karunanidhi and kill him in one of the natural accidents available for those against Antonia Maino, executed by the Italian mafia. Most likely Karunanidhi will die in a corporate hospital of old age. This reminds us the case of Kumaramangalam when he was in Apollo hospital At that time many felt that he is going to be killed there, as he brought in policies that were not liked by some foreign nations. And Apollo had some dubious connections in Dubai. Apollo Varkey hospital, (later named as Welcare Hospital) was Apollo’s joint venture with the Kerala christian Sunny Varkey. Varkey partly owns the Welcare hospital and is an ISI front man under investigation by RAW. So I wrote in the newspapers for shifting Kumaramangalam from Apollo. Kumaramangalam and Maran are two patriots killed off with the help of hospitals in not very apparent fashion. Next Karunanidhi may follow the same route


The Seer arrest is similar to the ISRO spy case initiated by CIA with the help of Christian policemen of Kerala state in India. In this two space scientists were accused of spying, arrested and tortured to fabricate evidence. This was to stop India developing the Cryogenic motor for the space rockets. It is time that Hindus should unite to stop the christian menace in India. The arrest may even have something to do with the Joshua project which is aimed at total conversion of the world to Christianity. (http://www.joshuaproject.net/), (http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=OPED&file_name=opd3%2Etxt&counter_img=3 ). If Christian church and the Italian spy agency can plant a waitress in front of an impressionable young Rajiv and get her married to him to reach one of the ruling families of India, and can totally control India now by her proxy nominees, the present conspiracy to jail the symbol of Hindu culture is child’s play. The Seer cannot pay the reported amount of Rs 40 lakh to the hired killers and it is very clear that the money have come from external sources. This also reminds us about the Tehelka expose of BJP leaders using miniature spy camera supplied by Italian spy agencies and funded through Christians living in Dubai.
Cyanide Prem Kumar and casting coach Jayalalitha- a beautiful pair

The murder of former mutt official Sankaramanan, is out of a typial Tamil movie story. The most startling fact is that the murder investigating officer, Prem Kumar had gone to Tirupati and on the way stayed at the house of prime murder accused Appu alias Krishnaswamy on 3rd September, 2004, the day Sankararaman was murdered.

Jayalalitha the yesteryear film actress who inherited the political party AIADMK by being the consort of its leader M.G.Ramachandran. For her political future she had organized the murder of Sankaramanan and had used the policeman the ‘Cyanide Premkumar, to trap the Hindu Seer ‘Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi’. Earlier Jayalalitha used another policeman Mohammed Ali for physically lifting and arresting her enemy the DMK chief Karunanidhi in a midnight operation. Mohammed Ali was later arrested by CBI for his involvement in the 60000 crore fake stamp paper scam.

There is a link between the prostitute who came up from the casting coach to the CM and these violent thugs who are the present policemen of Tamil Nadu. Earlier Jayalalitha was put in jail and tortured her using these very same policemen, by Karunanidhi, when Karunanidhi was the chief minister of the Tamil Nadu state. Our police force being criminals in uniform, what is going on in Chennai will not surprise anyone. Judiciary is bunch of the most corrupt creeps of this land and ready to issue an arrest warrant even against our president in return for money. Judges like J.P.Singh get the assistance of the terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. A nexus of totally criminalized politicians, police, judges are ruling our nation and the net result is lack of justice to the ordinary guys.

K.Premkumar is now posted as the SP of Kancheepuram and is put in charge of the Sankaramanan, murder case. One can remember the appointment of a policeman Sunil in Kerala, for investigating the sex racket run by the muslim league minister, ‘Ice cream Kunjalikutty’, in Kerala. Sunil himself was involved in three sex rackets and entrusting such a case with Sunil was like giving the key to the thief. The list of VIPs who raped the Kiliroor sex victim as told in her death declaration did not find in the list of documents Sunil submitted to the court. Like wise appointing Premkumar who has two prosecutions for torture and criminal assaults against him is more looking like that Jayalalitha is trying to manufacture evidence by torture, and the Sankararaman murder could have some connection to Premkumar himself. The prosecution recommended against Premkumar by the Director General of Police is pending with Jayalalitha since last year. .

Within a few years of having joined the service, Prem Kumar was named in a series of criminal cases. In one case he has even been convicted, but he appealed against the court verdict. In Tamil Nadu Prem Kumar is known as 'Cyanide Prem Kumar' because of his reputation for drugging and threatening the accused. .The 'disturbing' past record of this investigating officer includes campaigning for an AIADMK candidates. .Prem Kumar was suspended by the CHIEF ELECTION COMMISSIONER for campaigning for an AIADMK candidate during the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. But he was reinstated as SP, Cuddalore, after the polls. It is obvious that here is a man who can go to any extent to please a political party. Even now he is embroiled in many cases This kind of record for 'Cyanide Prem Kumar' heading the investigation in the cases against the Sankaracharya, shows that investigation into the murder case is a conspiracy and that a false case has been fabricated against Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi.

The humiliating arrest of the Kanchi seer is testing Hindu patience

18 November 2004: The Shankaracharya issue has turned political parties against one another, revived the Brahmin-non-Brahmin divide in Tamil Nadu and deeply hurt Hindu sentiments outside the state, provoked differences within political parties between secularists and those who keep faith, and left the country hanging on a communal precipice. The report of security and intelligence agencies to the government is hardly comforting.

While nobody in the agencies is debating the merits and demerits of the case, that being a matter left to the courts to decide, the manner of arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswati, the humiliation he suffered in the hands of the Tamil-Nadu police, have provoked the nagging question, why? Why was the Shankaracharya humiliated in this manner, and why didn’t the Centre intervene to tell the Tamil-Nadu government to adhere to Supreme-Court guidelines in the arrest and incarceration of religious leaders?

Both prime-minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have separately and differently washed their hands off the matter, but it won’t, frankly, wash. The PM said the Centre was not in the picture, and anyway, it was of no concern to it. Only a non-politician, who has no understanding of the ethos of this country, and its deep wedding to faith, would make such a statement, and he is factually incorrect, because home-minister Shivraj Patil certainly knew of the upcoming arrest, but was obviously directed to keep to a contrived neutrality. Sonia stuck to that neutrality position when questioned about the arrest on an UP visit, saying she couldn’t say more as the issue was subjudice.

But the Centre can hardly claim neutrality when there is an obvious and glaring connection between the arrest of a seer like the Shankaracharya and the communal situation. The agencies in their report to the government have warned of riots unless the Centre proactively steps in to protect the prestige and sanctity of the Kanchi Mutt. They have intercepted a large number of communications to and between many universities and to Hindu students urging an uprising against this hurt to the faith.

Once Shivraj Patil got to know of the impending arrest, he should have insisted on the Supreme-Court guidelines being followed. Yesterday, the CPI-M, which keeps out of matters of faith, was surprisingly conservative in its response. “The law must take its own course,” said Sitaram Yechuri. “At the same time, the Shankaracharya is a religious personality, and has a stature in Indian society. This must be kept in mind.” Nor can Sonia distance the Congress from the episode, because the Shankaracharya was arrested in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh. “If the Andhra chief minister had insisted on the Supreme-Court guidelines being followed,” said a Congress stalwart, “the Tamil-Nadu government would have been stopped in its tracks. This would have been a responsible position to take. Instead, the CM, Y.S.Rajashekhar Reddy, says he protected the junior Shankaracharya. Does it make sense?”

Starting from the Brahmin and Kshatriya leadership across all political parties, there is a deep sense of hurt and dismay. To this writer’s knowledge, several upper-caste Congress leaders are aghast at Jayalalithaa’s humiliation of the Shankaracharya to square off M.Karunanidhi and win the non-Brahmin votes in Tamil Nadu. But they are unable to break out of the “secular” gridlock of the Congress and speak their mind. During her UP trip, reportedly some Brahmin Congress leaders and workers expressed their upset to Sonia Gandhi, and the Centre is belatedly getting serious about damage-control. But no direct action is planned. Instead, moves are afoot to dredge up the old cases against Jayalalithaa and thereby pump up Karunanidhi once again and simultaneously placate the Hindu community, but this “political” action may be too little and too late.

Many of the communications intercepted by the security services push the VHP line of argument, that Jayalalithaa won’t have dared take such action against Islamic or church leaders, and that this has only been possible because of deep divisions in Hindu society which have encouraged the state’s practise of misplaced secularism. In the open, such an argument may not advance very much, but in the subterranean spaces, its impact has been widespread, and alarmed the agencies. One clear figure of hate has emerged, as if to balance out the Shankaracharya’s doings or misdoings, and that is the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid. All the subterranean anger of Hindus has started to reside in the alleged commissions and omissions of the Shahi Imam, when in fact, in private, all Muslim religious bodies have expressed the mainstream shock and dismay at the arrest.

In normal circumstances, the BJP/ RSS/ Sangha would be the lightning rod for all these suppressed Hindu sentiments, but the deep divisions in the Parivar have created the possibility of more radical expression of this perceived suppress. The deep divisions are most evident in the BJP, where Murli Manohar Joshi has unilaterally come out in defence of the Shankaracharya, while the L.K.Advani camp has been slower on the uptake. Those close to him have in typical off-the-record media briefings been saying the BJP is undecided, and so is the RSS, but the naysayers have been slowly facing the backlash.

At an Iftar party hosted by the former prime minister, A.B.Vajpayee, a journalist stunned and shocked him by congratulating him on the Shankaracharya’s late-night arrest. Reporters say the bottom fell out of the celebrations, and Vajpayee was pushed to regret the manner of arrest, although in fairness to him, he had unadvertised already raised the matter with Shivraj Patil. Following the Iftar episode, Advani also regretted the nature of arrest in another gathering, but there was unhappiness at the lead taken by Joshi.

There is less division at the RSS/ VHP level, and Ashok Singhal’s prompt condemnation of the arrest is attributed to the VHP’s primary responsibility for religious affairs in the Sangha structure. Obviously, the RSS/ VHP is milking the issue for all its worth, and it is their plan to prolong the crisis to consolidate the Hindus. A suggestion was made to the RSS chief, K.S.Sudershan, for the Shankaracharya to refuse to apply for bail, and instruct his lawyers and devotees not to exert in that direction, but it was turned down so as not to bring the crisis to a head so soon, since the movement was slowly picking up only in the small towns thus far. You can condemn the RSS/ VHP strategy, but who provided the opportunity, and why?

This is not to prejudge the issue, or to pronounce the Shankaracharya guilty, as Karunanidhi in his infinite wisdom has done. He was himself at the receiving end in June 2001 when Jayalalithaa’s police goons took him away in the dead of night and dumped him in the same Vellore Jail as the Shankaracharya. If it hurt him, it would hurt any other personage, including the Shankaracharya, but obviously, he has been clouded by his hatred for Brahmins, who have been a battered, endangered community in Tamil Nadu for the last fifty years and more.

As for the UPA, it has so far refused to acknowledge that the majority community can also feel a sense of hurt. If it was one policy of extreme in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, it is the other extreme now. The more politics is being sought to be severed from religion, the more it is being driven to it. The RSS/ VHP strategy is to “sacrifice” Jayendra Saraswati, if necessary, and consolidate Hindus behind the junior Shankaracharya. Because of the destructive and divisive nature of all Indian politics, secular and communal, India faces a new ransom situation today.

Arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya - Outrageous assault on Hindu honour

By R. Balashankar

The arrest and the manner of arrest of His Holiness Kanchi Shankaracharya Shri Jayendra Saraswati has shocked the nation. There was a palpable air of agony and disbelief, because it happened on Diwali day, at the behest of J. Jayalalithaa, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, whose eccentricities apart, many thought was keen to erase the Dravida Kazhagam blot, whose only contribution was in spreading hatred.

That 'the law should take its course' and 'everybody is equal before the law' are repeated ad nauseam in this context. We know how and what course the law takes (see pages 2, 10, 11) when it comes to politicians, minorities, organised thugs, terrorists and secessionists.

Shankaracharya's arrest has pained for many reasons. That the charges were cooked up, flimsy and contradictory, that the concerned law enforcing personnel, including the Public Prosecutor were absurd, abusive and disparaging, that the victim was convicted and almost punished, even before trial, by the media and the Chief Minister's ill-advised statement in the Assembly were not the only reasons for this pain.

Shankaracharya is a symbol. He is an institution. He represents the sentiments of millions of Hindus whose respect for him cuts across religious definitions, as he is a pious, unassuming, and progressive savant. He is heading a mutt founded by Adi Shankara and is its 69th Shankaracharya. He succeeded Pujaniya Paramacharya Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, whom many believed was a divine incarnation, indeed the greatest spiritual luminary of our time. The present Acharya is his disciple and like his guru, Shri Jayendra Saraswati's mission of restoring the Vedic Hinduism to its great glory is no less significant. He lighted millions of lives by his boundless compassion.

In the early eighties, he took up the challenge of Islamisation in Tamil Nadu. Even before that, he was closely associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other social reform movements. He was one of the first Acharyas of this age, who came out of the orthodox confines of the mutt and worked among the people, in the Dalit bastis. He even pronounced against caste, declaring that chaturvarna had no Vedic sanction. He is a revolutionary saint. He trained Dalit youth in temple rituals and declared them archakas giving them the sacred thread. Unwaveringly he stood for the Ram temple at Ayodhya and of late, he had acquired a universal reputation as a messenger of peace and harmony.

The arrest has shattered this image. The chargesheet is a bundle of contradictions. Everybody who knew the Shankaracharya and the mutt's standing and reputation will swear that he has been framed. For, it was said that the Acharya got Shankararaman killed by professional killers. And that they surrendered and confessed to the crime. Then that they were paid by taking Rs 10 lakh from the mutt account in the ICICI bank.

Professional killers are not known to belong to the tribe who go to police and voluntarily surrender. And if the mutt needed to give money for this purpose, why would it draw from the bank? Practically speaking, it can ask any devotee to pay up. And the much taunted telephone conversation is nowhere in the FIR. The police have also gone back on their previous claim that the bank account was of the mutt and operated by the Acharya. Now they are saying that the account was of an organisation close to the mutt. Jayalalithaa's police talk as if the Acharya is a hardened criminal. That he would have fled to Nepal.

The police said that they arrested the Acharya because he was about to 'flee'. They claimed to have got evidence of a clearance for a special flight to Nepal. Pray, how does one take off from Mehboobnagar? Acharya is the rajguru of the Nepal king. And after all, Nepal is no Pakistan and Acharya is no Dawood Ibrahim that the extradition is impossible. The tragedy is, in the name of law, the police harasses only the patriotic, law-abiding people of integrity.

K. Karunanidhi, the DMK leader, himself accused in numerous crimes, has been making all kinds of unsavoury noises. Remember, two years ago, when he was arrested in sleep on corruption charges by Jayalalithaa's police, what a racket he had created. He called it a political vendetta and Tamil Nadu as a police state. The man who raised such hullah about his human rights, health and reputation is now so abusive of the Acharya, that he wants the 2,000-year old mutt itself be taken over by the government. And also that a new Shankaracharya be appointed. This is the height of ignorance and blasphemy.

A Shankaracharya is not made in a day. Nor by the government. From the day of initiation in childhood, it takes at least two decades of rigorous training in philosophy and religion to make an Acharya of a mutt like Kanchi. That is why the Acharya's arrest was condemned by all the religious groups, including the Catholic Bishops Conference and the All India Association of Maulvis, who can appreciate the sentiments of faith.

Only politicians of pseudo-secular hues have justified the arrest and the manner, by saying that the Acharya did not deserve any special treatment. 'All are equal before law' trumpet the so-called justice lovers. The very men who are saying it are protected by unequal privileges, they themselves created. To arrest MPs, MLAs and ministers, special permission is needed. Are they more equal than the others?

'Justice should take its own course' is yet another nauseating reaction of politicians. What is their track record? Has justice taken its course in the case of Lalu Yadav and his horde of accused sitting in the Union cabinet? How many scandals have come out against them? And in how many have they been convicted? What is the track of justice in the endless list of cases of murder, rape, kidnapping and torture against half a dozen Congress leaders involved in the 1984 Sikh riots? The list is really long and listless. Jayalalithaa has walked out coolly in over a dozen charges against her, of course only to be revived by the DMK sooner than later. Justice takes the course the politicians want. Congress, which has reversed court decisions and ignored court directions, should be the last to speak about the rule of law.

Shankaracharya was woken up at midnight before Diwali, and was told that he was being taken for protection to Kanchi mutt. But he was then produced before a magistrate and sent to jail for a week. We would like to see the day when the police shows the same dare to make the Imam of Jama Masjid, who has been summoned many times by the courts in a dozen cases in many parts of the country if only to appear in the court.

The media also has played a dirty and deep game in the Shankaracharya case. Between Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, they own 90 per cent of the TV viewership in Tamil Nadu. The Sun TV and Jaya TV telecast 'news items' airing the so-called 'evidence' the police had supplied in the form of anonymous letters, and anonymous taped mobile phone conversations. They had drummed in so much about the 'activities' of Shankaracharya that even well-meaning people got confused. Taking recourse to these lies, which seemed to be appearing at the rate of one a day, the channels let their script flow unedited, suggesting, insinuating and sullying. Even for ethics' sake, words like 'alleged', 'supposed', or 'unconfirmed' were not used. They were all coming as direct, undiluted official versions. The owner of Sun TV is also the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology. The owner of Jaya TV is the Chief Minister who ordered the arrest of the Acharya. Could anyone expect any objectivity from them? When the visual media was so much sensationalising the news, the regional press also got sucked in, adding to the propaganda calumny.