Wednesday, January 12 2005 18:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (Jan 12, 2005) charged the Tamil Nadu Government with making attempts to "destroy the traditions" of the Kanchi Mutt by arresting the Junior Pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi even before the senior Seer Jayendra Saraswathi came out of prison on bail.

"This is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the daily poojas at the Mutt," BJP national secretary Bandaru Dattatreya told reporters in Chennai.

He said the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's statement that the daily poojas of the Mutt would not be affected was totally wrong. Chandramouliswar Pooja could be performed only by the Pontiffs of the Mutt and nobody else had that right, he said adding Jayalalithaa was "misleading" the people.

Holding Tamil Nadu Government wholly responsible for the arrest of the acharyas, he said the Centre could not any longer be a mute spectator to the happenings in Tamil Nadu.

BJP's Tamil Nadu unit would organise a series of protests against the arrest of Vijayendra Saraswathi from January 15, he said.

Dattatreya, who visited the tsunami affected areas of the State, said in most places, the solatium of Rs one lakh from the Chief Minister's relief fund had not reached the families of the victims. The State should come out with a white paper on the relief and rehabilitation of the tsunami affected persons, he said.