Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K.S. Alagiri on Tuesday accused the state BJP president K. Annamalai of politicising the recent suicide of a class XII girl, who was studying at a Christian missionary-run school, in Thanjavur district.
“The BJP will burn its fingers by adding religious colour to the incident,” he told reporters at Sathyamurthy Bhavan.
Mr. Alagiri said he had also watched the video of the girl making a statement [the girl responded to questions posed by the person who shot the video] and she talked about a proposal to convert to Christianity “two years ago”. “What has it got to do with the suicide now? We are not supporting [forcible religious] conversions and whoever is responsible for the girl’s suicide should be punished. But if a person willingly embraces a religion we cannot say anything,” he added.
Mr Alagiri wondered where was Mr. Annamalai when Anitha, a student from Ariyalur district, died by suicide when she could not join a medical college as the NEET was introduced that year. “It was a genuine issue and the BJP never bothered to fight against it. Now it is politicising the suicide of another girl,” he charged.
IAS rules
Taking strong exception to the proposed amendments to the IAS cadre rules, Mr. Alagiri said this would ultimately result in a demand for the creation of a separate Civil Service in Tamil Nadu. “The amendments are aimed at depriving States of their rights, and to covert IAS officers into tools in the hands of the Union Home Ministry. Neglect of states and regional languages will create a tumultuous situation as it happened in Bangladesh,” he warned.
Mr. Alagiri said the BJP sought to promote Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and Sardar Vallabhai Patel not because it had respect for them, but because it wanted erase Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru from the memories of people.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.)
