SG Surya, secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu, was granted bail by a Madurai court on Tuesday, June 20. Suryah was arrested by the crime branch of Madurai police on June 16, over a tweet in which he targeted Madurai MP Su Venkatesan from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The tweet was posted on June 7.
Suryah's tweet alleged that a sanitation worker had died in Pennadam Town Panchayat in Madurai after a local councillor had forced him to dispose of faecal matter. He had tagged Su Venkatesan in the tweet and questioned his silence on the matter. A complaint against Suryah was filed by the CPI(M) district secretary Ganesan and he was later arrested.
The party clarified that there was no Pennadam in Madurai district and it was in Cuddalore. The party also pointed out that there was indeed a death of a manual scavenger in Pennadam, but the CPI(M) was unconnected to that death.
Following his arrest, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) received flak from BJP members who called the arrest “undemocratic.” Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman condemned the arrest of SG Suryah and said it showed the “two-facedness” of the Tamil Nadu government. She asked whether it was fair to arrest Suryah for raising such questions on the death of a manual scavenging worker instead of taking appropriate action against such deaths. Along with her, many BJP leaders across the country condemned the Tamil Nadu government over its actions.
Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai tweeted, “The DMK government, which cannot counter criticism with ideas, is trying to suppress the voice of those who dissent by arresting them.” He further accused the DMK and its allies of setting double standards where social issues were concerned. Annamalai said there was an anti-democratic trend in Tamil Nadu of arresting people who criticise the government's activities.
Other BJP leaders including the party’s national general secretary CT Ravi, BJP leader Sudhakar Reddy and TN BJP’s vice president Narayan Thirupathy among others condemned the arrest and alleged that the arrest was “politically motivated and unwarranted.”