Raising the pitch for justice to the Thanjavur juvenile girl, who died by suicide resisting an alleged attempt to convert her to Christianity, a four-member Bharatiya Janata Party fact-finding committee on Wednesday questioned Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's silence on the issue and urged him to render justice to the 'daughter' of the country.
The all-women panel, which concluded its interaction with the affected family members and officials on Tuesday, called upon the state government to be neutral and bring those responsible for the 17-year-old plus two student's death, to book.
“I don't know why the chief minister is silent over the issue, despite the girl herself saying that she was forced to get converted to Christianity,” Vijayashanti, BJP leader from Telangana, who is part of the team, told reporters in Chennai.
“There's no need for us to say something that is non-existent or play politics. This (coercion) has been going on for about one-and-a-half years and the entire nation came to know about the reason for the girl's suicide after her video went viral,” Vijayashanti further said.
It was unfortunate that children sent to the best schools for learning are forced to get converted rather than being encouraged to learn, she said.
“This does not augur well for education,” she said, expressing sorrow over the bright student's suicide.
The teenager, student of a missionary school in Thanjavur, consumed poison on January 9 and died on January 19.
Wondering what prevented the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or the police from acting quickly on evidences, or even ascertain the cause of her suicide, she said by blatantly denying conversion, the DMK government only proved that it was against the Hindus.
“You can support whichever religion you want but why go against one religion in particular,” she sought to know and accused the DMK of attempting to alter the culture of Tamil Nadu.
Also, she claimed that the girl's father who has been a member of the DMK for nearly a quarter century, is being intimidated by the party for raising the conversion issue.
The committee would submit its report to BJP national president J P Nadda, she added.
Parliamentarian Sandhya Rai from Madhya Pradesh said the need for the committee to visit Thanjavur to ascertain the truth would not have arisen had the DMK government taken prompt action to arrest those responsible for the girl's death.
“But the DMK government is maintaining silence,” she alleged and called upon the government to render justice to the 'daughter' of the nation.
Apart from arresting two wardens of the girl's hostel for which the licence expired, Rai demanded the state government provide Rs 1 crore compensation to the student's family.
Chitra Tai Wagh of Maharashtra and Geetha Vivekananda of Karnataka are the other members of the team formed by Nadda on January 27, to ascertain the facts and submit a report to him at the earliest.
Following a plea from the girl's father S Muruganantham, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court on January 31 ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the suicide.
