Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: www.expressindia.com
Date: December 1, 2004
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=39084
Expressing "outrage" over the arrest
of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Sarswathi, several Hindu religious and
political organisations and the Sikh Sangat of America held a demonstration
near the Indian consulate in New York demanding the seer's release.
"Hindus believe that the arrest
of the Sankaracharya is motivated by a sinister design to demoralise them
in general and to frighten and terrorise seers into submission," the demonstrators
told reporters on Tuesday during the two-hour protest.
The demonstration was led by Vishwa
Hindu Parishad of America and 'friends of BJP'. In a memorandum addressed
to consul general Pramathesh Rath, the demonstrators said Hindus in America
are "deeply disturbed and shocked" at the "disrespectful and legally suspect"
manner in which Jayendra Saraswathi was summarily arrested and remanded
to prison.
Swamiji's arrest, it said, is symptomatic
of a "multi-pronged attack" soon to spread against potentially all Hindu
leaders espousing the cause of Hindutva.
"This is a sinister attempt to frighten
and terrorise other Hindu pontiffs into submission," it added.
The manner in which the Tamil Nadu
police and the public prosecutor have tried to portray the Sankaracharya
as a "professional killer" smacks of political partisanship. It said.