The Centre today sought to distance itself from the Shankaracharya arrest, even as the issue rocked both Houses during Zero Hour. There were heated exchanges between the BJP-Shiv Sena on one side and the DMK, AIADMK, Left parties and RJD on the other. Intervening during the discussion in Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said neither the Centre nor the Andhra Government had anything to do with the arrest. He said the PM had written a letter to TN Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa purely on humanitarian grounds and that the matter fell under the purview of the TN court. ‘‘Let Parliament not get into this,’’ he added. In the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri asserted that the Centre was not involved ‘‘directly or indirectly’’. ‘‘Contrary to reports, the Andhra CM did not consult either the PM or the Home Minister before the seer’s arrest in Mehboobnagar,’’ he said. Reading out excerpts from the PM’s letter, Pachauri said Singh had asked to ensure the well-being of the Shankaracharya, considering his health, age and status, and had stressed that there should be no interference in the legal process. In the Lok Sabha, the Congress avoided taking any stand on the Shankaracharya issue. This seemed to stem from a behind-the-scene understanding between the Government and the Opposition. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad even said that ‘‘we kept quiet’’ because it was agreed upon. In Upper House, BJP deputy leader Sushma Swaraj said she was not going into the merits of the case as it was sub-judice, but about her ‘‘anguish’’ over the treatment meted out to ‘‘Hinduism’s holy seer’’. ‘‘Even politicians and journalists get preferential treatment when they are arrested. The fact that even the PM had to intervene.shows that the state government was contemptuous of the saint,’’ she said. AIADMK MPs protested against Swaraj’s remarks and P.G. Narayanan said: ‘‘The seer himself has acknowledged before the magistrate he was being treated well.’’ He also protested BJP president L.K. Advani’s demand for shifting the case out of TN. BJP deputy leader V.K. Malhotra, who raised the issue in the Lower House, said the arrest had hurt people’s sentiments. He demanded that the case be shifted out of TN. He was repeatedly interrupted by Mohammad Salim of the CPI(M), Ram Kripal Yadav and Raghunath Jha of the RJD and Ramdas Athavale of the RPI. Amid the din, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the members could move a motion against him if they did not obey the chair.
