Take pledge to eliminate terrorism from Tamil Nadu soil, says Ponnar Radhakrishnan

Chennai: Union minister of state for finance and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, whose comments on law and order and the presence of terrorists and extremists in the state, evoked criticism from the state government, has urged the BJP members to take a vow to eliminate terrorism from Tamil Nadu soil.

The BJP senior, who stuck to his stand on the infiltration of terror groups into Tamil Nadu, chose the death anniversary of the party’s former state general secretary ‘auditor’ V. Ramesh who was hacked to death by unidentified gang on his office premises at Maravaneri in Salem on July 19, 2013, to urge the members. He said “today is the occasion for the BJP members to take a pledge to root out terrorism.”

Law and order, the minister had contended, was a state subject and the onus was on the Tamil Nadu government to ensure its maintenance. “Whatever arrests have been made so far was effected by the central agencies,” he had claimed. Earlier, while paying homage to those killed in serial bomb blasts in the city in 1998, Mr Radhakrishnan had said, “Tamil Nadu is definitely not a haven of peace. It is only a training ground for various fundamentalist organisations. Naxalites, Maoists, Tamil extremists and Islamic terrorists have joined hands against the administration, which was evident during the jallikattu agitation last year.”

The BJP and Hindu Munnani have been claiming that their leaders were being targeted by terrorists since the Coimbatore blasts. The saffron party’s major grouse is that Muslim outfits have been targeting them and the state has not taken stringent action. Prior to Ramesh, Hindu Munnani leader S. Vellaiyappan was killed on July 1, 2013, in Vellore. On Thursday, the party members led by state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan paid tributes to Ramesh at the party headquarters, Kamalalayam.