Reopen temples in 10 days or face protests, Annamalai tells TN government
The Hindu
The BJP leader led a protest on Thursday outside the Kalikambal Temple; he also said the State could not decide on the conversion of temple gold into gold bars
Tamil Nadu BJP president, K. Annamalai, said there would be intensified protests against the State government if it did not rollback the decision to keep temples and other places of worship closed between Fridays and Sundays, within the next 10 days.
Mr. Annamalai led a protest on Thursday outside the Kalikambal Temple in Harbour constituency. “They are trying to push their ideology into people’s personal space and our sacred temples in the name of COVID-19 control,” he said.
The BJP leader said the Central government’s advisory on places of worship to remain closed was only an advisory, and not an order. Mr. Stalin, when in the Opposition, had claimed that once the DMK was in power, the government would frame its own COVID-19 rules and not be bound by the Union government’s directive.
Amidst demand by the BJP for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged unauthorised transfer of funds belonging to the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (MVSTDC), Home Minister G. Parameshwara on Friday said that the State government will not hand over the investigation to the CBI “voluntarily.”