'Hindu-hating': Nirmala Sitharaman pans MK Stalin govt in live streaming row
Nirmala Sitharaman said the ruling party is showing "personal hatred" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Chennai: Reacting to allegations that the Tamil Nadu government has been attempting to block the live telecast of the Ram Temple event in Ayodhya, union minister and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday called MK Stalin's DMK a "Hindu-hating" party. She said the ruling party is showing "personal hatred" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The Tamil Nadu police are being misused by the government of Tamil Nadu...They are being misused by Hindu-hating DMK...Can any citizen be denied to watch the Prime Minister? The DMK is showing its personal hatred for the Prime Minister," Sitharaman was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
She alleged that in a temple in Tamil Nadu, the local police had denied the permission to put up LED screens for the live telecast of the Ayodhya event.
"In the Thovalai Murugan Temple , located in Nagercoil, permission is being denied to put up LED screens for live telecast. Order by police seen below," she said.
Follow full coverage on Ram Temple consecration ceremony
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Tamil Nadu authorities to act in accordance with the law and not on the basis of oral instructions on "banning" special prayers and live telecast of the Ram temple consecration ceremony.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, while hearing a plea seeking quashing of an "oral order" dated January 20 banning live telecast of the consecration ceremony at Ayodhya in temples across Tamil Nadu, said no one is bound to abide with the oral orders.
The Supreme Court asked the authorities to list on record the reasons for taking any such action. It also asked them to maintain data of places of worship that are not allowed to hold special prayers or the live telecast of the ceremony.
Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Monday claimed the staff of Shri Ram temple in Chennai -- which is under the state government's control -- faced repression.
Also read: Need Tamil nationalism, not Hindu nationalism, says DMK MP A Raja on Ram Temple event eve
"This morning I visited Sri Kodandaramaswami Temple, West Mambalam, Chennai, and offered prayers to Prabhu Sri Ram for the well-being of all. This temple is under the HR & CE Dept. (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the state government). There was an all-pervasive sense of invisible fear and apprehensions writ large on the faces of priests and temple staff. A stark contrast to the festive environment in the rest of the country. While the entire country is celebrating the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lalla, the temple premises here exude a sense of acute repression," he wrote on X.
On Sunday, Sitharaman claimed the Tamil Nadu police were stopping privately held temples from organising events commemorating the Ram Temple event.
Last week, the DMK said it was against the temple because it was built after the destruction of a mosque.
With inputs from PTI, ANI
