By IANS
Chennai : Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of “encouraging blasphemy”, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Wednesday urged it to disassociate itself from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s remarks against Hindu god Ram.
The government was adopting double standards on blasphemy, he said, pointing out that a Congress government had banned Salman Rushdie’s book ‘Satanic Verses’ in the 1980s but now it was not restraining Karunanidhi from commenting on Ram and hurt Hindu sentiments.
Singh was in Chennai to attend the funeral of former BJP president K. Jana Krishnamurthi who died here Tuesday. Another former party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi were also present at the cremation where former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s condolence message was read out.
The BJP chief also visited the party’s state office here that was Sunday vandalised allegedly by DMK cadres while protesting a death threat to DMK chief Karunanidhi.
“We will not be cowed down by such threats,” Singh said.
“Some ministers who have taken oath to protect the constitution have indulged in the attack,” he alleged, demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sack the DMK ministers from the union cabinet.
“The people will compel (Shipping Minister T.R.) Baalu and the DMK to realign the Sethu (canal project)” if he refused to do so, Singh said.
Several BJP offices across the state were attacked after Ram Vilas Vedanti, a former BJP MP, reportedly announced a reward for anyone “beheading” Karunanidhi.
Vedanti later said he was misquoted.
Several Hindu outfits and the BJP are angry with the octogenarian politician for his remarks against Ram in his defence of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project.