Reverence can be overdone. Especially if it is public reverence for a religious official in a secular country. The arrest of the sankaracharya of Kanchi, Sri Jayendra Saraswati, by the Tamil Nadu police and his subsequent incarceration have excited, predictably, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the other members of the sangh parivar. The BJP, which has made a habit of walking out of the Lok Sabha at the drop of a hat ? or even before the proverbial hat has begun its downward career ? now has a juicy issue handed to it by Ms J. Jayalalithaa. The rest of the sangh parivar has been spoiling for a fight ever since the BJP?s defeat, if only to prove that Hindutva is the only winning card. But it is disconcerting to find that even the prime minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, is advocating a tender approach towards the arrested sankaracharya, emphasizing the Hindu leader?s age, religious status and frail health.

?Extreme care and caution? was his advice to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu in a letter regarding the treatment of the sankaracharya. Even before the letter, the prime minister had made two points in passing: that the Centre had no hand in the arrest, and that the leader?s age, status and health should be kept in mind when dealing with him. It is not clear why Mr Singh should take the trouble of saying or writing these things at all. He mentioned that the law must take its own course ? only to qualify it with his words of caution. Sri Jayendra Saraswati is in the hands of the law, and the state government is ultimately responsible. If the treatment meted out to him is unjust, it has to be so established in court. Special treatment for age or health is never a talking point when prisoners from the higher echelons of society are put behind bars: the prison system has its own norms. Here the crux is religion. And the fear of being branded anti-Hindu ? manifested in the ridiculous exhibition all parties put up in parliament recently by competing for Hindu credentials. It is this pussy-footedness regarding religion that allows the growth of aggressive Hindutva and of allegations that no leader of the minority religions would have been arrested in this way. The charge, if ever proven to be true, would be another example of the same pussy-footedness. The prime minister is the last person who should show himself susceptible to such destructive pressures. His concern is with governance and the impartial functioning of the law.