DMK, BJP face off in House over TN lamp row

Baalu accuses BJP of trying to ‘ignite’ communal tension; Rijiju says DMK leader cannot cast aspersions on judiciary

- PREETHA NAIR @Chennai

EVEN as the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Friday said it would hear all appeals in the Thiruparankundram Karthigai Deepam case on December 12, the issue triggered an acrimonious exchange between BJP and DMK members in the Lok Sabha.

The ruckus began during the Zero Hour after senior DMK leader TR Baalu criticised the Madras HC judge, who had allowed petitioners to light the lamp on a stone pillar, ‘Deepathoon’, on the Thiruparankundram hill against the century-old custom followed by Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department.

The state government had defied the December 1 order of Justice GR Swaminathan and lit the lamp at the Uchipillaiyar temple on December 3, as is custom, apprehending communal tensions in the state. The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear the state’s appeal challenging the HC’s order.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Baalu accused the BJP of trying to ‘ignite’ communal tension in TN and claimed that the judge belongs to a particular ideology.