TN Govt. showing undue interest in Mutt cases: BJP

Newstodaynet.com, NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 18:

The BJP today hit back at Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the Kanchi Sankaracharyas arrest issue, accusing her government of showing 'undue interest' in the case and refuting her charge that the party was trying to gain political mileage from it.

Posing a list of 11queries before the Chief Minister on the arrest of the Acharyas, in a statement here, BJP national secretary L Ganesan said, the BJP had never held religious leaders above law.

'But those who advocate the policy that 'all are equal before law', have never applied it in the case of leaders of other faiths'.

Describing the remarks made by Jayalalithaa as those borne out of 'extreme anger', Ganesan refuted her charge that the BJP leaders had been raising the Kanchi Mutt issue only with a view to rehabilitating their party.

'The BJP is not in such a condition. The party has taken up the issue not for political mileage but on ideological basis'.

The 11 queries:

• What was the urgency to arrest Sri Jayendra Saraswati?
• What was the necessity to rush the police to Andhra Pradesh?
• Was the midnight arrest necessary?
• What was the significance of selecting Deepavali day to arrest the Seer?
• Was it to prevent the Seer from getting bail as the four days next to Deepavali were Court holidays?,
• Was the description of Seer as a 'criminal' by the Public Prosecutor was the opinion of the PP or the government ?
• If the government's objective was to bring to book culprits involved in a murder case, why was the probe centred around 'money'?
• If the arrest of the Seer was a 'painful one', why was a senior lawyer flown in from Delhi to argue the case?
• Why the 'character assassination campaign' to malign the image of the Kanchi Mutt?
• How were the video clippings taken during the police interrogation leaked to the media ?
• Why was Sri Vijayendra Saraswati arrested without giving him an opportunity tomeet his Guru ?

While all other parties had supported the arrest of Kanchi Seers, the BJP had opposed it to show that the Kanchi Mutt, a symbol of Hinduism, was not bereft of support.

Even if the party would have had to lose politically by taking up the issue, it would have done so without hesitation, Ganesan asserted.

Referring to the remark made by Jayalalithaa in November that the decision to arrest the Kanchi Acharya was a 'painful one', Ganesan said now she had shifted her stand and begun to describe it as her achievement.

Thousands of questions remained unanswered in the minds of the people of the State on the arrest, Ganesan said and posed 11 queries which, he said, the Chief Minister had failed to clarify in her recent statement.