The way the Tamil Nadu Government has dealt with the blasphemous public show organised by the Dravida Kazhagam in connection with its “Superstition Eradication Conference” at Salem on January 24 and with the subsequent developments constitutes an inglorious chapter in the history of the administration of the State. It reveals either a complete lack of understanding on the part of the D.M.K. Government of the heinousness of the offence perpetrated by the organisers of the outrageous show or a could-not-care-less attitude towards the religious beliefs of the overwhelming section of the population. It is not as if the Government was not aware in advance of the nature of the procession planned by the D.K. A memorandum had been presented by local citizens to the appropriate authorities some days before the event giving details of what had been planned and requesting them not to permit the processionists to carry obscene pictures insulting Gods and Goddesses. Not only was nothing done to prevent the sacrilegious demonstration but the processionists were allowed to go round carrying knives, lathis, swords and other weapons, and no action was instituted against any of them even after they had brandished the weaponsagainst people objecting to the denigration of the deities. After all the public indignation which the procession aroused and an appeal had been made to the Governor urging criminal proceedings against the organisers of the procession, all that the Chief Minister could say, seven days after the event, was that he was sorry to learn from newspaper reports about the obscene demonstration and that he had called for a report from the police officials. The State Government, he said, did not want to place any curbs on the activities of any religious bodies or political parties as such curbs might wound their feelings! But the Government did not lack alacrity when the Tamil journal Thuglak came out with an issue carrying pictures of the procession. The Police raided the office of the journal and seized all available copies of the issue and a case was registered against its Editor under Section 292-A of the Indian Penal Code (selling indecent, scurrilous pictures etc.). The Chief Minister said on February 14 that the Government had taken action against “two or three” police personnel in Salem.
