Chennai:

Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai flogged himself six times Friday morning.

In a shocking video shared by news agency ANI, Mr Annamalai stands, shirtless in a green lungi, with a large whip in his hand. To adoring shouts and slogans, he then whips himself six times, a seventh stopped by a supporter who runs in, dodges the whip, and hugs Mr Annamalai.

Why the self-flagellation? Because the senior BJP leader vowed last evening to whip himself six times to kickstart a mega protest, which includes a 48-day fast and a promise to go barefeet, against the ruling DMK with the target of ensuring its defeat in the 2026 Assembly election.

“Anybody understanding Tamil culture will understand this (the self-flagellation). Flogging ourselves… punishing ourselves… it is part of this culture,” he told reporters after the whipping.

#WATCH | Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai self-whips himself as a mark of protest to demand justice in the Anna University alleged sexual assault case. pic.twitter.com/ZoEhSsoo1r

— ANI (@ANI) December 27, 2024

“This (his protest) is not against any person or thing… but against a continuous injustice that is happening in the state,” Mr Annamalai told reporters, “What happened at Anna University is only the tipping point. If you look at what has been happening over the last 3 years… the continuous injustice against the common people, against women and children, and the corruption…”

“So, yesterday I announced that we have chosen to go (down this) path… which a lot of my forefathers walked on, flogging and whipping ourselves…”

READ | “Will Whip Myself…”: Tamil Nadu BJP Chief’s Big Pre-Poll Promise

Mr Annamalai’s protests have been triggered by the horrific sexual assault this week of a student at Chennai’s Anna University, and the thrashing of her male friend. A 37-year-old man, who ran a roadside food stall has been arrested. Police said Wednesday that he had confessed.

The assault, however, has led to a predictable political spat between the DMK of Chief Minister MK Stalin and the BJP and the AIADMK, the main opposition parties, who were allies till September last year, when they fell apart after Mr Annamalai criticised the state party’s icons.

On Wednesday he ripped into the DMK government, declaring the state had become a “breeding ground of unlawful activities” and a “haven for criminals” under its administration.

With input from agencies

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Chennai:

Amid the massive political row over the sexual assault case on Anna University’s campus in Chennai, the BJP has alleged that the arrested accused is a DMK worker who has been involved in similar crimes in the past. Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai has shared pictures of the accused, Gnanasekaran, with top DMK leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of Chief Minister MK Stalin.

Mr Annamalai alleged that Gnanasekaran is the deputy organiser of DMK’s Saidai East student wing. “A clear pattern emerges from such criminal cases across Tamil Nadu. A criminal becomes a member of the DMK and becomes close to the DMK executives in that area. All cases registered against him are being shelved. Furthermore, he is being released without being classified as a criminal with a criminal record and without being placed on the watch list of the local police station. Due to pressure from the respective local DMK executives and ministers, the police are not investigating the cases against him, which gives him room to commit further crimes,” he alleged in an X post. 

அண்ணா பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில், மாணவி பாலியல் வன்கொடுமைக்கு ஆளான வழக்கில் கைதாகியுள்ள ஞானசேகரன் என்ற நபர், ஏற்கனவே இது போன்ற குற்றங்களில் பல முறை ஈடுபட்டவர் என்பதும், அவர் திமுகவின், சைதை கிழக்கு பகுதி மாணவர் அணி துணை அமைப்பாளர் என்பதும் தெரிய வந்துள்ளது.

தமிழகம் முழுவதும், இதுபோன்ற… pic.twitter.com/K1ahEoIqE0

— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) December 25, 2024

“This cruelty has happened to an innocent student today because a person who has been involved in 15 cases of sexual crimes has been left without taking any action for so many days. The DMK government is entirely responsible for this,” he added.

“How long will the people of Tamil Nadu have to tolerate this situation? Is there a law in Tamil Nadu that says that if you are a member of the ruling party, you should not take action against the criminals?” Mr Annamalai said.

The main Opposition AIADMK, too, stepped up its attack on the ruling party. “The sexual assault incident on the Anna University campus is proof that the ruling DMK is a den of anti-social elements who are corrupting society and engaging in all kinds of criminal activities,” Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly E Palaniswami said.

The former Chief Minister said the state government’s claim that CCTVs at Anna University are not working is like saying, “Ants ate the sugar, termites ate the sack.”

“The fact that this unfortunate regime and the parties that run it have turned universities into dens for sex offenders, instead of running them as schools of higher education, is the height of world cruelty. Why didn’t the police, who track down and arrest those who post a tweet and comment, arrest Gnanasekaran, who is already involved in several cases? Is it because he belongs to the ruling DMK?” he asked.

The DMK has trashed these allegations and said the photographs of the accused with party leaders and ministers mean nothing. “If somebody is taking a picture with a leader, what does it mean? Whoever it is, if someone has committed a crime, or done something wrong, the law won’t keep quiet. It has happened in this case. He has been arrested, he cannot escape justice. The Opposition parties do not have anything to say against the DMK, so every day they are saying law and order situation has deteriorated. If there is an abnormal increase in crime in the present tenure, then you can allege there is an issue with law and order, if the accused person is allowed to escape, then you can allege. But even an MP from the DMK was arrested and was in jail for two months. This is how DMK views law and order, if you commit a crime, you will be taken to task,” DMK’s A Saravanan told NDTV.

According to the police, a second-year engineering student at Anna University has said in her complaint that an unidentified person threatened and sexually assaulted her when she was talking to her friend on campus around 8 pm Monday. The police have said 37-year-old man Gnanasekaran has confessed. 

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the proceedings in a criminal case lodged against Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai for allegedly delivering a hate speech against Christians in an interview to a YouTube channel in October 2022 with regard to bursting firecrackers.

After perusing the transcript of the statements given in the interview, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta observed, “Prima facie, there is no hate speech. No case is made out.” The bench issued a notice to the complainant, who accused Annamalai of delivering a hate speech against Christians in the interview on October 22, 2022 with regard to the bursting of crackers, two days before Diwali.

“Issue notice returnable in the week commencing April 29, 2024. In the meanwhile, there shall be a stay on further proceedings before the trial court,” the bench said in its order.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate Sai Deepak, appearing in the court on behalf of Annamalai, showed the transcript of the interview to the bench and said it was not a case of hate speech.

Annamalai has moved the top court challenging a Madras High Court order that had refused to quash the summons issued to him in the case.

Refusing to quash the summons on February 8, the high court observed that the psychological impact on an individual or a group must also be considered under the definition of hate speech.

The summons was issued by the trial court based on a complaint filed by a man named V Piyush.

The high court had noted that Annamalai had given an interview to a YouTube channel, the run-time of which was nearly 44.25 minutes, and a six-and-a-half-minute extract of it was shared on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s X (then Twitter) handle on October 22, 2022.

The content of the message was that there was an internationally-funded Christian missionary NGO that was allegedly involved in destroying the Hindu culture by filing cases in the Supreme Court to prevent Hindus from bursting crackers.

Prima facie, the statements disclosed a divisive intent on the petitioner’s part to portray the NGO as acting against Hindu culture, the high court had said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chennai:

K Annamalai, the chief of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit, today asked party workers to strengthen its hold in the state to take on the ruling DMK after losing AIADMK, an important ally, from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), sources said.

The Tamil Nadu BJP chief urged his party’s district Presidents and state office bearers to work very hard to expand BJP’s negligible presence in the state and to capitalise on what he calls the Modi government’s performance, sources said.

After losing its ally, the AIADMK, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has no strong political party on its side yet in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Annamalai said, “We will present the report card of Modi government’s work in the last ten years. Be it 2014 or 2019, Tamil Nadu has not repeated the pattern. I am confident the people of the state will reward us with an exponentially high number of MPs for NDA.”

K Annamalai denies violating, what AIADMK terms as coalition dharma, after comments on their former ally’s icons CN Annadurai and J Jayalalithaa.

“I’d not go by what they say in the statement. In politics, decisions are taken based on strategic choices. It’s their individual decision, I would not want to comment,” he said.

The AIADMK lost all three polls it fought when it was in alliance with the BJP, including the Lok Sabha polls it suffered a near rout and the assembly elections. For AIADMK chief, E Palaniswami, it is an acid test for his leadership to reclaim the party’s falling political fortunes since J Jayalalithaa’s death. EPS has also ruled out any U-turn in decision after the alliance was called off.  

“When a resolution is adopted, it is final. The decisions are taken at an all-India level. We were forced to support issues we didn’t agree on due to alliance dharma. Now we have no such situation”, the former Chief Minister said.

The AIADMK and BJP leadership did not even campaign together for the Erode East Bypoll. The Dravidian party saw the BJP as a liability.

Meanwhile, K Annamalai suspended his padayatra until October 16, citing bed rest advised by doctors, triggering speculations about whether the party’s leadership is attempting to reach out to the AIADMK.

While AIADMK is upbeat after snapping ties with the BJP, it is time for a reality check for their former ally (BJP) in Tamil Nadu following a phase of hype.