State, Seer face-off gets more complex

IANS[ THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2005 12:58:28 PM ]

KALAVAI, Tamil Nadu: Acharya Ashok Vyas and Sanskrit professor S Venugopal are talking in rapid Sanskrit.

Possibly, they do not want the media and suspected police spies to understand what it is they are discussing so animatedly. Both are devoted followers of Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi.

The action is taking place at Kalavai, about 40 km from Kanchipuram, from where the Shankaracharya, released from prison on Tuesday after spending two months in prison, shifted to following a Supreme Court order banning that he should keep away from the mutt until investigation into his alleged involvement in a murder case is completed.

The devotees are hard put to keep pace with the speed at which the affairs of this high profile pontiff, charged with ordering the killing of temple official A Sankararaman, is taking place.

For over two months his political constituency, mainly the Hindu rightwing groups, have been shouting themselves hoarse demanding that the seer's cases be moved out of Tamil Nadu, saying the police are biased.

The demand seems to have boomeranged, with the Jayaram Jayalalitha government asking the Supreme Court to ensure that the Shankaracharya is nowhere in southern India.

With state elections in a year's time and the pontiff on bail and meeting his devotees in large numbers as in the past, Jayalalitha, some analysts believe, has made some shrewd political calculations in seeking the apex court's help in separating this religious leader from his political constituency.

If the apex court grants the plea, it will ensure for Jayalalitha that any attempt to make political capital of the Shankaracharya's arrest in the Tamil Nadu elections is well away from her doorstep.

As Jayendra Sarswathi attempted to immerse himself in prayers and rituals Wednesday, a dozen fronts were opened Wednesday night, far away from Kalavai,

"The word Kalavai means a confluence, of 'jeevaathma' (earthy) and 'paramaathma' (spiritual)." explains devotee S Balaji.

In Chennai, 150 km north of Kalavai that has become the sect's operational headquarters, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has alleged there was an attempt by the Tamil Nadu government to create a fear psychosis among the devotees and supporters of the Kanchipuram monastery.

"The latest example is the summons issued to people like me in the name of questioning in cases related to the Shankaracharya," S Vedantam, the national vice president of VHP complained to the media.

The VHP leaders have refused to obey such summons. C P Radhakrishnan, president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and 50 others were arrested Wednesday when they tried to hold a protest in Chennai in support of Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi, the junior pontiff who has also been arrested in the same murder case. The protestors were later released.

Jayendra Saraswathi has been summoned again to present himself on Thursday for further questioning by the special police team based in Kanchipuram probing the several cases against him.

In one case of assault, the government has assured principal sessions judge P Murugesan in Chennai that Jayendra Saraswathi will not be re-arrested before January 20.

Police have formally obtained a search warrant from the Madras High Court to search the Kanchipuram mutt while both its chiefs are away.

According to A Shanmugam, one of the mutt's many lawyers, the accounts of the monastery and its 120 support organisations may have been frozen because several cheques issued by these institutions have bounced.

The bail petition of the junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi will be heard on Monday at the Sessions Court at Chengalpattu, near Chennai.

He was arrested in the Sankararaman murder case January 10 and remanded in judicial custody till January 24. He is being held in the Chennai Central Prison.

As if all these were not enough, there seems to be an attempt to expose a rift between the junior and senior pontiffs. The police on Wednesday night released to some television channels video footage, reportedly showing Jayendra Saraswathi, in his jail cell, criticising Vijayendra Saraswathi.

At Kalavai, where cell phones do not reach, the devotees do not want to know any more.