law and order has failed in Tamil Nadu, according to two prominent BJP leaders in the State. While party national council member H Raja said the law and order situation has taken a beating for the worse, State BJP chief Pon Radhakrishnan charged that Fort St George, headquarters of the State administration, itself was not safe.
They were speaking to reporters along with the Central delegation led by Prakash Javadekar deputed by BJP’s national president Rajnath Singh to take stock of the situation in Tamil Nadu following the unprecedented murders and attacks against leaders and workers of the Sangh Parivar including the BJP.
The month of July saw the gruesome murders of Vellaiayppan, the Hindu Front leader at Vellore, and State BJP general secretary R Ramesh, who was hacked to death at Salem.
“On Friday we had gone to Fort Saint George (the Secretariat) for a meeting with the Home Secretary. One of the officials told me that he knew why we had come to the Secretariat. He also told us to pray to God rather than complaining to the authorities. This proves that the headquarters of the State Government itself is not safe,” said Radhakrishnan.
Javadekar along with Anant Kumar Hegde (lok Sabha member) and Nirmala Sitharaman (national spokesperson) visited Salem where Ramesh was murdered on July 19 and Vellore where Vellaiyappan was done to death on July 1. “What is disturbing in these gruesome murders is the striking similarities in the modus operandi. These are all targeted and selective killings. The motive behind all these murders are ideological,” said Javadekar while speaking to reporters after the three-day tour.
Former Deputy Prime Minister lK Advani would visit Salem on August 1 to address a protest rally being organised by various Hindu outfits, said Javadekar. He also said the preliminary probe undertaken by the delegation gave enough hints of a possible fundamentalist and terror angle to the murders of Ramesh, Arvind Reddy and Vellaiyappan. “We don’t want to look at these murders through the prism of religion. But the fact remains that all these murders were handiwork of extremist and terrorist elements,” he said.
The members of the delegation spoke to the near and dear ones of the victims and visited the sites where the murders were committed. “A fair probe should be held and the larger conspiracy behind these murders should be exposed. Then only we will be able to identify the real culprits,” he said.
Javadekar bemoaned attempts being made by certain vested interest to portray these murders as fallouts of real estate dealings and business rivalry.