Monday, January 17 2005 18:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Agitated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's outburst against it in Shankaracharya arrest case, BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) today (Jan 17, 2005) accused her of "defaming" the Kanchi Mutt in the name of secularism and likened the situation in the State to "Emergency" in which "bias has been "institutionalised in Government and police."

Accusing Jayalalithaa of using police for a "desperate purpose of trying to revive the shrinking base of the ruling party", the saffron party raised questions over the absence of a "clear and categorical" stand by Congress and other political parties on "this major issue".

In a strong rejoinder to Jayalalithaa's statement issued yesterday in which she said no religious head was above the law, BJP general secretary and spokesman Arun Jaitley alleged at a press conference in New Delhi that the Chief Minister was "defaming the Kanchi Mutt and meting out injustice to a religious head in the name of secularism."

"Discrimination is no enforcement of rule of law," he said, charging that Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati and Junior Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati were being subjected to such a treatment.

Likening Jayalalithaa's rule to Emergency, he said that this was clear by her actions like arrest of the Junior Shankaracharya when the Supreme Court released the Kanchi Seer on bail and issuance of warrant against Jayendra Saraswati in a third case immediately after the Apex Court's decision.