It's brutal: BJP leader

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JUNE 30. The national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, has condemned the Tamil Nadu Government for its `brutality' in arresting the former Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, and for the violent manhandling of the Union Cabinet Ministers, Mr. Murasoli Maran and Mr. T.R. Balu.

In a press release issued at Chottanikkara, 20 km from here today and venue of the BJP State committee meeting, Mr. Krishnamurthi urged the Centre to depute a high-level Government functionary to study the situation in Tamil Nadu.

The nation stood shocked at the manner in which Mr. Karunanidhi and the Ministers were `manhandled.' If the Government felt compelled to take the former Chief Minister into custody, none could possibly have had any objection as Mr. Karunanidhi himself had declared a few days ago that he was prepared to face any inquiry, he said.

But, to `manhandle' one who was old and not keeping good health and who would not have resisted arrest, was reprehensible. Perhaps, for the first time in the history of the country, Cabinet Ministers were manhandled. It was only during the British raj that the citizens' rights were scantily respected. But, it was not expected of a Government functioning within the Constitution, to behave in such a brutal manner.

It was for the constitutional pundits to say whether the Government had not transgressed its limits and whether it had challenged the Centre's constitutional authority by its treatment of the Ministers, the BJP president said.

``I expect the State Governor to show the same alacrity and promptness which was shown when she invited Ms. J. Jayalalithaa to form the Government in submitting a factual report of the happenings yesterday,'' he added.

The Centre would be well within its constitutional rights and obligations to depute either a Minister of State for Home or a very high official of the Ministry to Chennai to find for itself why the incident took place, the release said.

The party's State committee meeting, in a separate statement, said the Jayalalithaa Government's brutality was reminiscent of the excesses during the Emergency days. Strongly condemning the act, the committee said it was eager to know the response of the Congress, the Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), towards the incident which smacked of vendetta and anti-democratic culture. The Government should establish an Army camp in Malappuram where Muslim fundamentalism was gaining strength as well as alert stations of the Coast Guard or Navy along the coastal area. Meanwhile, the Kerala Minister for Law and Revenue, Mr. K.M. Mani, on Saturday criticised the manner of arrest of Mr. M. Karunanidhi.

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