The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Uma Bharti deriving political advantage: Vasan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Uma Bharti deriving political advantage: Vasan

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 8. The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, G.K. Vasan, today criticised the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, for "dragging" the All-India Congress Committee president, Sonia Gandhi, into the issue of arrest of the Kanchi Acharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, in a murder case.

In a statement here, Mr. Vasan said Ms. Bharti tried to derive political advantage from any issue. She had been trying to bring in the name of Ms. Gandhi despite the Congress president making it clear that she did not want to make any comment as the matter was in court. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, herself went on record saying she had cleared the arrest. So the charge against Ms. Gandhi and the Congress was only politically motivated, said Mr. Vasan.

Referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Bandaru Dattatreya's allegation that the arrest was a conspiracy by the Centre in collusion with the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh Governments, Mr. Vasan said the Andhra Pradesh Government delayed the arrest by more than 10 hours. In a federal structure it was not possible to prevent the arrest.

`Double standards'

Condemning the BJP's demand for transferring the case to another State, Mr. Vasan said it was the same party, which had protested against the transfer of the wealth case against Ms. Jayalalithaa to Karnataka. The BJP's stand exposed its "double standards".

The arrest of the Acharya was purely a State issue and the Congress was confident that law would take its course, said Mr. Vasan.

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