|
Top Stories
BJP launches nationwide
stir
against seer's police remand
What is India News Service, Saturday, 20
November 2004, 2000 hrs IST
Joining
issue with the Tamil Nadu government on the arrest of Kanchi
Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, an agitated BJP announced
the launch of a three-day nationwide stir from Friday against
the police remand.
The BJP accused both the Tamil Nadu
government and the centre of "assaulting and insulting Hindu
religion".
Advani led a day-long dharna and fast Friday
in Delhi, and will be followed by senior leaders Murli Manohar Joshi
and Jaswant Singh on subsequent days to protest against the Kanchi
seer being sent to three-day police custody.
Vajpayee will
join the stir on Monday, party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told
reporters here, adding that the decision was taken at an emergency
meeting of the party attended by top leadership.
The party
also decided that Vajpayee and Advani would meet the pontiff during
his police custody, she said adding the BJP president was planning
to do so on Sunday.
Swaraj, whose party fought the last Lok
Sabha polls in alliance with AIADMK, alleged that Tamil Nadu
government's motive was to "defame" the Shankaracharya "just because
of votes". "It is not a matter of an individual but an assault on
and insult of our religion," she alleged, insisting that the seer
had been framed in a "totally false and baseless" case.
Seer's
'rahu kalam' plea ignored: The seer had asked the court not to
pronounce verdict before 'rahu kalam' phase but his request was
turned down.
BJP
leaders meet Kalam on seer issue: The BJP moved swiftly on the
arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati as top party
leaders, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
complained to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and announced dharnas and
fasts against the Tamil Nadu government.
Pragyag
Seer demands Sankaracharya's resignation: Swami Madhavanand
Saraswati, senior Shankaracharya of Pragyag Peeth, on Friday
demanded that Sri Jayendra Saraswati resign as Chief of Kanchi Mutt
following his arrest, saying "this would save the reputation of
Hindu religion." However, he was critical of the Tamil Nadu
government for keeping him in jail and felt that instead Sri
Jayendra Saraswati should have been kept under police guard at his
Ashram.
Video
footage shows arrest guidelines were followed, says
prosecution: The prosecution has a strong case against the Kanchi
Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, in the killing of the
manager of the Sri Varadarajaperumal temple, Kancheepuram, in
September, K.T.S. Tulsi, senior counsel appearing for the
prosecution, told the Madras High Court on Thursday.
BJP
drops Jaya, rallies around seer: After treading a cautious path
for about a week, the BJP on Friday took a tough stand on the
Shankaracharya case and indicated it was ready to say farewell to
the AIADMK. The Congress has adopted an extremely cautious approach
on the arrest to avoid being seen on either side of the
fence.
Hindu
psyche shaken, says Ravishankar: New age guru Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar on Saturday said that the arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya in
a murder case has "shaken Hindu psyche" and appealed to the people
not to turn it into a communal issue.
Cops
probe Kanchi seer's Madurai links: A four-member special police
team, which is investigating Kanchi Jayendra Saraswathi's role in
the Sankararaman murder case, visited Madurai on Tuesday and
reportedly gathered specific information about the seer's `links'
with some VVIPs here. Reliable sources told this website's newspaper
that the team went to places `frequented' by the seer during his
visits to Madurai. The Pontiff has a large number of followers in
the Temple City and they include CEOs from big business houses,
builders, professionals and bankers. The seer had stayed here for
over a fortnight during the Navarathri celebrations and performed
special poojas.
Kanchi
mutt should be saved, says Karunanidhi: DMK president M
Karunanidhi has appealed to the government and responsible citizens
to explore avenues to save the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam and prevent
its disintegration. In a statement, he said that the noble ideals
and objectives of the Kanchi Mutt should not be allowed to be swept
away by the controversy arising out of the arrest of Sri Jayendra
Saraswathi in a murder case.
Special:
What does it mean to be a Hindu in
India?
Unease grows in the hearts of common Indians as they
watch
a revered saint being arrested and humiliated, writes
Soumya Sitaraman
What is
India Editorial
Police and defence affidavits.
Full text in
PDF format
More stories in
earlier editions of What is India:
17
November 2004
18
November 2004
19
November 2004
A What is India
Opinion Compilation
The
Kanchi Acharya case
The
challenges before Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi
There can be no doubt that the Kanchi Sankara Mutt
is going through a rough patch and its followers are totally
upset with the developments, writes V JAYANTH
The
silver lining, however, is the return of the junior Acharya,
Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi, to Kancheepuram, bringing life back
into the mutt's headquarters. But the challenges facing Sri
Vijayendra Saraswathi are many and daunting.
The first and major challenge is to
restore the image of the Sankara Mutt and the confidence of
its vast following. Having been trained and mentored by the
Paramacharya, most followers believe that Sri Vijayendra
Saraswathi may be ideally suited to do this. He is known to
prefer the academic, scholastic and vedic aspects of the
activities, not being very comfortable with administrative and
financial management.
Offensive, prima
facie
Two
high profile midnight swoops within two and half years by the
Tamil Nadu police expose the double standards in Indian public
life, writes BALBIR K PUNJ
When Ms J Jayalalithaa's
stormtroopers in uniform had picked up the DMK top brass, Mr M
Karunanidhi, there was countrywide uproar across party and
ideological lines. While, ironically, the same DMK is
celebrating Kanchi Shankaracharya's humiliating midnight
arrest, the "secularists" and self-proclaimed human rights
activists are busy rationalising the sordid drama in the name
of "rule of law" and "equality before the
law".
Why this witch
hunt?
Sitting in a distant land watching all the
tamasha happening in Tamil Nadu, one can't help but wonder
whether India is fit to be a democracy, writes THENALI
RAMAN
With freedom comes tremendous power and with
power comes responsibility. None of our politicians, both
Hindu and atheist, seems to care about tarnishing the
reputation of Hinduism and Indian culture, by this inane
display of vote bank politics. They openly call the
Shankaracharya names and demand the extinction of a 2500-year
tradition that the Kanchi Mutt signifies. The public
prosecutor is especially vicious in calling the Acharya 'a
criminal who deserves no sympathy'. Pardon me if I sound dumb
but our law does presume everyone innocent until proven
guilty. Then why this witch-hunt?
The fact is
Sankaraman was murdered due to some vendetta between him and
an unknown figure. Common sense dictates that the
Shankaracharya with such a huge national clout would not risk
his prestige on such an incident knowing the fallout could be
disastrous. The Jayalalitha government's actions so far are
based on frivolous charges like: 1) Rs. 40 lakhs was withdrawn
from the bank; 2) the surrendered persons were bogus; 3) some
of the withdrawn money made its way to the accused; 4) there
were cell phone calls between the mutt and the accused and, 5)
finally, the confessions by the accused. Now let us look at
each of these factors known to us so far:
The
value of life in India is so cheap that one does not need to
spend Rs. 40 lakhs to take out an ordinary person like
Sankaraman. The dadas in Bombay would have done it cheaper and
left the TN police clueless.
Well, how many
political crimes and crimes involving land grabs have been
resolved by the TN police based on the statements of
surrendered bogus criminals? The right answer would be too
many to count. Since the surrendered people, in this instance,
were liars anyway their statements cannot be counted upon as
evidence.
The Kanchi Mutt is a nationwide
institution and could be spending lakhs of rupees everyday for
charity and other works. So the withdrawal of huge sums is not
uncommon. It is possible that the money given to X could have
landed with Y. So this claim is equally
ridiculous.
Unless there were recordings of the
conversation (which I doubt), the accused could have been
talking to anybody inside the Mutt and in connection with a
completely different matter. Or these could have been
stage-managed to implicate the Kanchi Mutt. One has to bear in
mind that even high school kids know, let alone the Acharya,
that these days, mobile telephones are being regularly tapped
to trap bookies and criminals.
All those arrested
so far are known criminals. So their confessions could easily
be either stage-managed by politicians or coerced by the
police to achieve objectives set by their
higher-ups.
|
Manmohan
leaves on quest for peace in North-East: Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh leaves tomorrow on a three-day trip to the North-East. An aide
described the visit as a quest for peace and harmony in the
region.
India
protests to USA against arms for Pak: Foreign Secretary Shyam
Saran, who is at present in Washington, has conveyed India’s concern
to the Bush administration on its latest move to provide a $ 300
million arms package to Pakistan which is in addition to the
proposed supply of F-16 fighter aircraft.
SC
quashes allotment of plot to Calcutta HC ex-judge: In a
strongly-worded order aimed at enforcing judicial discipline, the
Supreme Court today quashed allotment of plot to former Calcutta
High Court judge B.P. Banerjee for “misusing” his judicial power to
get it from the Chief Minister’s discretionary quota in the Salt
Lake Housing Complex 17 years ago.
13 PAC jawans killed in
Naxalite blast: At least 13 Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC)
jawans were killed and four others seriously injured when their bus
was blown up by naxalites in Chandauli district.
Zahira's
elder brother also turns hostile: A day after Zahira's younger
brother, Nasibullah, turned hostile, her elder brother, Nafitullah,
told the court today that when the Best Bakery was attacked, he
could not see anything as there was a lot of smoke.
Major, 2
others killed in blast: An Army major and two jawans were killed
and a Captain was critically wounded when the vehicle in which they
were travelling was blown up in a powerful improvised explosive
device blast at Behramgala in Poonch district today.
Gen
claims 'cold vibes' on Kashmir: Four days ahead of Pakistan
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's visit, Islamabad is back to accusing
India of non-seriousness on the Kashmir issue. Reacting to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that redrawing of international
boundaries was unacceptable to India, Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf told AFP, "The vibes that are now coming do not encourage
a process of normalisation."
Special:
What does it mean to be a Hindu in
India?
Unease grows in the hearts of common Indians as they
watch
a revered saint being arrested and humiliated, writes
Soumya Sitaraman
What is
India Editorial
|
