The Tamil Nadu Police under the Joseph Vijay TVK government have finally registered an FIR against a TVK functionary over inflammatory remarks concerning Lord Muruga, but the action has come only after the issue was flagged publicly, raising questions over why the police took time to act against a member of the ruling party.
The remarks by the TVK functionary, identified as Michel, had triggered criticism from Hindus that they were offensive to the sentiments of devotees.
The issue was subsequently brought to the attention of the Tamil Nadu Police and the TVK leadership, with a complaint demanding action against him.
An FIR has now been registered against Michel.
While the registration of the case has been welcomed as an initial step, the delay before police action has become the larger point of contention.
The same functionary has also abused Hinduism and rituals. He even posted a picture of a young Kavad yatri and called for eradication of Hinduism.
Why Was Action Delayed?
The bigger question arising from the case is the stark contrast in the speed of police action.
When Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin was accused of making an allegedly vulgar, double-meaning remark in connection with actress Trisha, the TVK government moved swiftly. A case was registered and Udhayanidhi was arrested from his Chennai residence on August 4, with nine provisions invoked against him.
The police action came over remarks that were described by the TVK itself as objectionable and offensive. The party had also lodged a complaint over the speech.
Now compare that with the case involving Michel, a TVK functionary whose social media posts mocked Lord Muruga and Hindu religious beliefs. Among the posts shared are remarks describing Hinduism as a religion that should be hated, along with posts ridiculing references to Muruga.
Here, however, the police response was not nearly as swift.
The issue had to be publicly flagged, with questions raised over why the Tamil Nadu Police had not acted against a member of the ruling party despite the allegedly derogatory nature of his posts. Only subsequently did Thiruvallur police announce that a case had been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Why was the police machinery quick to act against an opposition leader over allegedly vulgar remarks concerning an actress, but slow even to register an FIR when the accused was a TVK functionary and the allegations involved remarks against a Hindu deity and Hindu religious beliefs?
The issue is not whether an FIR was eventually registered. It was.
The issue is why an FIR was not registered with the same urgency.
If the police consider allegedly offensive remarks serious enough to warrant immediate criminal action when the accused is an opposition leader, the same standard should logically apply when the accused belongs to the ruling party.
The TVK government cannot claim credit for eventually acting against its own functionary while ignoring the question of why the action took so long in the first place.
Udhayanidhi’s alleged remarks triggered swift police action and an arrest. A TVK functionary’s alleged remarks concerning Lord Muruga and Hinduism took considerably longer to reach even the FIR stage.
That difference in response inevitably raises the question of whether the police are applying one standard when the accused belongs to the opposition and another when the accused is from the ruling party.
If the alleged remarks were serious enough to book a case, why was the police response so much slower when the accused was one of their own party’s functionaries?
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