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A What is India Compilation The Kanchi Acharya case High Court turns down Seer's plea: The Madras High Court on Monday rejected Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati's petition challenging a Kancheepuram court order to send him to police custody. Justice A K Rajan, however, permitted the Seer's counsel to be present while he was being interrogated by the police.  Kancheepuram First Class Judicial Magistrate-I G Uttamaraj had remanded the Seer to police custody from 12:05 pm on November 19 to 10:30 am on November 22.  Uttamaraj had directed that Kanchi seer's counsel could only meet him between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm during the period of police custody. Advani calls on junior seer: BJP president L K Advani on Monday called on Vijayendra Saraswati at the Kanchi mutt. "I hope this unfortunate episode of the arrest of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati will end soon," he said. Police continue to grill pontiff: The Kanchi mutt has clarified that it has not petitioned the president or the prime minister against the arrest. PM hopes Acharya will be treated well: Reiterating that the Centre had no hand in the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday expressed the hope that the Acharya would be treated with respect and dignity. Humiliating for Hindus, says Kalyan: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP national vice-president Kalyan Singh has criticised the Congress for " supporting" the Tamil Nadu government on the seer's arrest. Police cordon around mutt: Functionaries at the Kanchi Sankara Mutt have expressed concern at the police "harassment" of visitors. Arrest anti-Hindu, says BJP: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday continued its `dharna' to protest against the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya. OPINION Commotion in Kanchi The arrest of the Shankaracharya has rocked the Kamakoti Peetam as nothing before. RAJEEV P I takes a look at Jayendra Saraswati\92s unorthodox religio-political activism  For a man whose office is weighed down by tradition, Jayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Kanchi\92s Kamakoti Peetam, has always been a bit unorthodox. In just so many ways, he is an absolutely unprecedented Shankaracharya.  He\92s travelled abroad \97 famously to China \97 actively immersed himself in political discourse, attended VHP dharma sansads, played a role in social engineering, made himself so accessible to journalists as to be termed media-savvy, used chartered aircraft liberally, made corporate friends. He\92s even watched television, which was, once upon a time not so long ago, the cause of much anguish and anxiety among the devout in Kanchi.  In Tamil politics, where caste is decidedly a bigger force than religion, the anti-Brahmin DMK is happily and gleefully exploiting the Shankaracharya\92s arrest.  As the Sankaracharya stands like Abhimanyu ... The entire polity of Tamil Nadu except the BJP is ranged against him. Never in the history of the state did the DMK and the AIADMK, whose leaders never meet, ever unite on anything as they do on this issue and against him, says S GURUMURTHY  The lawyer\92s outfits are targeting his head. For the 'secular' media it is a godsend to say not just that the Modi type Hindus are criminals, even Sankaracharya is one such. It is having a field day in publishing and showing all kinds of rubbish. Here there is no difference between the yellow journals and the serious ones in the content that is carried about him.  Today the Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati is standing like Abhimanyu caught in Chakravyuha. Thanks to the vicious atmosphere, the Acharya has been convicted at the bar of the public even as the investigation on the charges against him has just begun. Fanaticising issues It is understandable that devotees of the Kanchi Mutt are upset over the deepening travails of the Sankaracharya, says an editorial in The Hindu What they must realise, however, is that the time of troubles for the Acharya is a time of legal troubles \97 arising out of a brutal, motivated, and planned murder of an adversary within the precincts of a temple. Conspiracy theories are singularly out of place here. As this newspaper observed in an earlier editorial, the message sent out by the apprehension and arrest of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi by the Tamil Nadu police in Andhra Pradesh was that nobody, however high in spiritual or temporal matters, was above the law. Asserting in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the arrest of the Acharya was based on "firm evidence of his involvement" in the murder, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa explained that her Government did not resort to this action "expecting bouquets for arresting the Sankaracharya or fearing brickbats for not arresting him" but acted on "the principle that all are equal before the law." If the evidence does not stand up in court at the trial stage, there will be a big political price to pay.  Her Highness Relations had already soured...then Jaya saw a chance to rise a few inches higher, writes S ANAND When the law really catches up with the high and mighty, there's a sense of disbelief. So the question, 'Why did J. Jayalalitha effect the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya?' has an apparent unanswerable ring. Jayalalitha's answer, though, is deceptively simple: he is an accused and all are equal before law. But it's hardly a convincing line from someone who used to consult the Kanchi math head over various issues during her 1991-96 term and again since 2001. Jayalalitha, after all, is seen as a 'natural ally' of the BJP, lauded by the Sangh parivar as a role model chief minister. 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 20 November 2004

Advani vows to restore Savarkar plaque: Savarkar espoused Hindutva but was a non-conformist and fought against superstitions, Advani said. 

Autonomy should be reviewed, says Patil: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in an internal and recommendatory report to the Prime Minister, has said efforts should be continued to bring the Hurriyat Conference to the table for talks. 

Patil suggests steps to counter terrorism in J&K: The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, has said in a report to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, that improved coordination between the security forces and intelligence agencies was crucial to counter terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.


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