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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday asserted that the Centre is awaiting the report of Tamil Nadu Governor C Rangarajan on the firing in Madras on Sunday on a rally of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam before deciding on the course of action.
BJP spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the Centre had asked the governor to send a report on the violence. But he clarified that dismissal of the state government would be the last resort.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament House, Malhotra charged that the All-India Anna DMK government of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had deputed the same three police officers who had been involved in the midnight arrest of DMK president M Karunanidhi to handle Sunday's rally.
Five persons were killed in the firing while several, including some journalists, were injured. A DMK legislator who participated in the rally died on Monday of a heart attack.
Accusing the Tamil Nadu government of resorting to political vendetta against the DMK, Malhotra said, "The police brutalities against DMK chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi and two Union ministers did not only raise a challenge to law, but also to freedom."
Asserting that the right to protest was a legitimate right, he pointed out that DMK workers, including legislators, were beaten up "and a brutally beaten [DMK] MLA died in hospital".
Intimidation of the media, he continued, including the detention of reporters and news cameramen in the state director-general of police's office, "is a clear signal from a vengeful tyrant [that] I will not permit dissent or differences".
"Enough is enough," Malhotra thundered. "The Centre should not accept this. The BJP demands immediate action against the errant police officers and if the state government does not mend its conduct, the central government should act to protect the rule of law."
The BJP spokesman also said the Tamil Nadu police officers should be brought to the Centre and punished. When cornered by reporters on the kind of punishment being contemplated for the trio, Malhotra hastened to add, "Cases should be instituted against them."
The Congress, meanwhile, kept a low profile on the subject. Chief spokesman S Jaipal Reddy just said that the violence in Tamil Nadu was unfortunate, but added that law and order is a state subject and the Centre cannot appoint a commission of inquiry into it.
RELATED REPORTS: Jayalalithaa orders judicial probe into violence at DMK rally PM speaks to Karunanidhi, meets DMK MPs DMK legislator dies of heart attack DMK members force Parliament to adjourn Violence mars DMK rally, 3 killed, 100 injured
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