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the Daily Pioneer - The Pioneer Edit Desk
On the defensive
Ms J Jayalalithaa wrongly thinks that attack is the best form of defence.
The BJP, which has held her to account for the sorry treatment meted out
to Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, is in her line of fire. The
reason is not far to seek: The lady finds herself increasingly cornered in
the Kanchi mutt case. The Supreme Court's recent order granting the seer
bail was a vindication of sorts of the BJP's stand.
More so, since the apex court found the prosecution's stated grounds linking
the religious leader to the Shankararaman murder too tenuous to hold water.
The NHRC, soon after, issued a notice asking the AIADMK regime to explain
the unbecoming circumstances of junior Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati's
arrest. The State Government first hit back at the apex court, demanding
that its "harsh" remarks against the prosecution be expunged.
As if telling the highest judiciary how to do its job were not enough,
it then gunned for the BJP, which stood accused of using the controversy
to "rehabilitate" itself.
Ms Jayalalithaa has claimed to uphold the "majesty of the law".
She forgets that the BJP, as ruling party at the Centre in 1999, had argued
that the law had to take its course with regard to cases against her. Why
the AIADMK walked out of the BJP-led Government soon after, leading to its
fall, is thus no secret. Noble sentiments about the law's sanctity are a
bit rich, coming from a lady whose own troubles with the law have often been
perceived as including attempts to evade it.
In her statement, Ms Jayalalithaa cites India's "secular" Constitution.
This reference is both gratuitous and predictable. She is seen as pursuing
an 'ideological' makeover so as to cosy up to the Congress. The lady is at
liberty to be a political weathervane, choosing friends according to which
way the wind blows. The Congress is in power at the Centre, which no doubt
renders it more attractive in her eyes than when the NDA called the shots.
But it is inexcusable that a revered Hindu religious figure should be the
victim of 'secular' politicking. Besides, given her Protean record, Ms Jayalalithaa
is hardly the model of fidelity: Not so long ago, she broadcast her ideological
kinship with the BJP, the party she now bashes as unconcerned about the "law".
But the mud refuses to stick. The BJP, like others critics of Ms Jayalalithaa's
sledge-hammer tactics, has not said that some are above the law.
It has only questioned misuse of the law's penal provisions, as reflected
in the AIADMK's methods of application. The apex court itself has intervened
in the case, rapping the prosecution for failing to produce evidence justifying
the seer's now-terminated detention. The Congress has, curiously, not been
too vocal. Its studied silence will only make people draw one conclusion:
Ms Jayalalithaa has turned against the BJP, and the Grand Old Party is
mulling friendship with the enemy's enemy. Given that the Congress is expected
to act responsibly and impartially at the nation's helm, such an image
will do it more harm than Ms Jayalalithaa can do it good.
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