The Madras high court has taken suo moto notice of disparaging comments by BJP national secretary H. Raja and summoned him to appear. The Tamil Nadu leader may only have been carrying out his plan to further his BJP agenda to use the Vinayaka Chathurthi immersion procession to create communal trouble and use it politically. In trying to sow discord in a state that has few issues over communities living in harmony, the BJP secretary was playing a dangerous game. The system of the police laying out routes that would cause the least disruption while recognising the demographics has been working well  over the years. Mr Raja’s bid to disrupt it is part of a typical plan to propagate Hindutva while cleaving society.

Mr Raja’s diatribe against the police may have been par for the course as law enforcement agencies are usually the first targets of those seeking to disrupt. Professing to fight for the rights of any community, including the majority, may be legitimate enough, but to do so by baiting the judiciary with choice abuses is hardly constructive politics. The BJP leader is also known for constant run-ins with followers of atheistic social reformer Periyar. All this adds up to taking incendiary positions on sensitive political issues in Tamil Nadu that may go towards affecting the balance of communal amity in a state in which not a single life was lost in the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots that erupted nationally. Curiously, the national party with the least presence in Tamil Nadu, with just one legislator voted into the Lok Sabha, is trying to vitiate the atmosphere.