BJP wants seer's cases shifted outside TN

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday reiterated its demand for the shifting of cases against the Kanchi Shankaracharya outside Tamil Nadu.

Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani told reporters in Nagpur that he, along with former president R Venkataraman and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to urge the government to intervene in the matter.

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"We told the prime minister that it is the question of sentiments of crores of Hindus, hurt by investigations being conducted [against the Kanchi seer] with a vindictive attitude and the ill-treatment meted out to Jayendra Saraswati," he said.

Advani is in Nagpur to participate in the Sangh Parivar's Chintan Baithak and discuss the strategy for an agitation on the Shankaracharya issue.

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He is likely to discuss the Shankaracharya issue with Vishwa Hindu Parishad working president Ashok Singhal, its international general secretary Praveen Togadia, former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh general secretary Mohan Bhagwat at the two-day meeting, to be presided over by RSS chief K S Sudarshan.