By IANS
Chennai : The Congress party, in a fix over one of the venues of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s public functions here next week that is owned by its Tamil Nadu unit, has decided to ignore the visit as well as the protests.
The controversial Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has been invited by Cho Ramaswamy, actor and editor of the Tughlak magazine, to be the chief guest at the annual day celebration of his publication.
Modi is expected to be in the city Jan 14, the day the state celebrates Pongal or the harvest festival.
AIADMK leader and former chief minister J. Jayalalitha has invited him for a meal, informed sources said. The two leaders are expected to discuss the possibility of alliance for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Cho had over a year ago booked for the function the Kamaraj Arangam, a hall named after Congress stalwart K. Kamaraj on the Mount Road in the heart of the city with a seating capacity for 2,000.
The hall belongs to the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Charitable Trust, which holds prime property in the city, valued at nearly Rs.1.5 billion.
Several organisations critical of Modi, seen as the poster boy of hard line Hindutva, have flayed the Congress connection to his visit.
The Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath has warned of a statewide protest Friday against Modi’s planned visit, as has the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam.
These organisations, under the umbrella of an anti-Modi coalition called the Anti-Fascist Front, Thursday launched an “awareness campaign” to tell people about Modi’s “communal politics”.
Activists of the Makkal Kalai Ilakiya Kazhagam, the Revolutionary Youth and Students Federation and the Jananayaga Thozhilal Munnani staged protests before the Congress headquarters in the city, Sathyamurthi Bhavan, Wednesday demanding an explanation.
Caught on the back foot, state Congress president M. Krishnasamy Thursday called a meeting of senior Congress leaders and its 34 legislators.
They waited throughout the day for instructions from the central leadership.
“The high command has indicated that the function should neither be stopped nor the situation allowed to flare up,” a senior state leader told the media here Thursday evening.
“The Congress is spineless if it encourages Modi’s visit to Chennai. It is time the party woke up from its slumber,” said M.S. Jawahairullah, president of the TMMK.
In view of the various protests, however, the BJP’s state leader Ila Ganesan said: “The state government will be responsible for Modi’s security. He is a terror for terrorists themselves.”
He also alleged that the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (the Dalit Panthers), a DMK ally, had said Modi would not return alive if he visited Tamil Nadu.