Treat seer with care: NDA

Continuing its campaign against the arrest of Kanchi seer, a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) delegation, led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Leader of Opposition LK Advani, senior leader Sushma Swaraj and the six-member NDA team that had gone to Vellore jail to meet the Shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswathi, accompanied Vajpayee. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil were also present at the meeting.

The NDA leaders urged the Prime Minister to "redress the harassment" and ensure a "humane treatment" to the seer of the Kanchi mutt.

According to Rajya Sabha member Balbir Punj, who was part of the delegation, all was done to impress upon the Prime Minister that the J Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu was carrying out a witch- hunt against the Kanchi mutt. Earlier allegations of wrongdoing against the Superintendent of Police Prem Kumar were also brought up.

"The Prime Minister said he had expressed his concern to the Tamil Nadu chief minister and proceeded to read out the letter he had written to her and the chief minister's reply," said Punj.

"At this point, Vajpayee said that there was a world of difference between what the Tamil Nadu chief minister had assured and the actual state of affairs."

The Opposition leaders submitted a report of its fact-finding mission led by Punj which visited the Kanchi Mutt to Singh. The report alleged that a war was being waged against the mutt by the state government and that the seer was being unnecessarily harassed.

"The Prime Minister gave us an assurance that whatever was within the Constitution and law would be done for the seer," said Punj.

The NDA's sudden move on the seer issue, after it had been focusing exclusively on the Bihar polls has come as a surprise. Some observers believe it to be a measure to counter Uma Bharati's visits to Ayodhya and invoking the Ram Temple issue.