The Madras High Court on Monday initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Bharatiya Janata Party National Secretary H Raja after he allegedly used abusive words about the court, Bar and Bench reported. The court asked him to appear before it within four weeks to explain his remarks.
“Any attempt at creating a dent in this most revered pillar of our democratic system could lead to promotion of fascism, naxalism and all that is opposed to democracy,” the court said, according to The Hindu. “We judges are but cogwheels in the administration of justice till we have done our time and wane away. It is the majesty of this institution, the superior courts and courts below which is paramount and it is this that we seek to uphold.”
On Sunday, the Tamil Nadu Police filed a case against Raja, a day after he called the force “anti-Hindu” when they stopped him from taking a communally-sensitive route during a Ganesha idol immersion procession in Pudukottai district. He accused the police of being corrupt and made derogatory remarks against the High Court when the police showed him a court order, reported The Times of India.
Six others have also been named in the complaint, according to India Today.
A video of Raja’s outburst has gone viral on social media. “You police are anti-Hindu and corrupt,” he alleged, according to ANI. “If you torture a Hindu, you cannot be called one. Don’t be their enemy,” he purportedly said, according to NDTV. “Are you all not ashamed of wearing police uniform? The entire state police has become corrupt.”
He also objected to the police refusing to allow him to erect a stage. “How can I stand on the ground and speak?” he asked. “I need a stage to speak.”
Raja has claimed the voice in the video clip is not his, and it had been edited, reported The Hindu.
Raja has been involved in controversies in the past too. In March, he put up a post on Facebook, which appeared to call for the demolition of statues of social reformer EV Ramasamy, also known as Periyar. “Today Lenin’s statue, tomorrow Tamil Nadu’s EVR Ramaswami’s statue,” the BJP leader had said, hours after a Lenin statue was brought down in Tripura following the saffron party’s win in the Assembly elections.
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