From correspondents in Tamil Nadu, India, 08:32 PM IST
Four suspected activists of a Hindu right-wing group were arrested Thursday for attacking minority institutions in Tamil Nadu, police sources said.
'Those arrested belonged to the Hindu Munnani (Front),' an official of 'Q' Branch - a section of the state police that puts down extremist violence - told IANS.
The suspects - Nagarajan, Siva Shakthi, Marudachalam and Raja - arrested in Erode district, were in the age group of 24-27, police sources said.
They have been nabbed 'for various acts that disturbed peace in the state', the 'Q' Branch official said, adding: 'Chief Minister (M. Karunanidhi) has ordered stringent action against trouble-makers.'
Until now, 'Q' Branch only concentrated on extreme Left-wing and anti-national activities and action against right-wing activities in the state is for the first time.
However, Rama Gopalan, leader of the Hindu Munnani denied the charges of attacking Christian institutions.
'Our protests against fraudulent conversion activities are peaceful in nature,' Gopalan said.
Sporadic assaults on Christian institutions were reported in the past many days in Tamil Nadu.
According to the police, these included desecration of 20 graves in a cemetery in a district bordering the capital's southern outskirts, stoning of three churches in Erode and Karur districts, theft of a statue of Mother Mary in Krishnagiri, damage to a Virgin Mary icon in Kanyakumari district and vandalism against an idol of Jesus in Madurai during the past five days.
Cutting across the political divide, ruling and opposition parties have criticised the acts of vandalism terming them 'reprehensible, despicable and irresponsible acts aimed at destroying peace and amity prevailing in Tamil Nadu'.
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violence for whatever reasons in a democracy are deplorable. In the reported incident, the Hindu Munnani leader says that its agitation was against fraudulent conversions by Christian clergy and peaceful. Hence this point needs to be considered, and whether the said agiators' role was really violent or was exaggerated. More importantly, a full scale investigation including all religious (majority and minority) representatives and a wise, high calibre judge must go through the charges of extensive, virulent and fraudulent conversions using various means of deception such as incentives, magic cure demonstrations, denigraion of Hindu deities, etc., and submit the report to the state and central governments so that the long term nationhood of India is not sacrificed by politicians who misuse secularism by its lopsided use for sake of personal and party power for the enjoyment of kith and kin and local party chiefs.
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