The BJP on Wednesday asked the Centre to deploy forces outside the offices of Sangh parivar in view of the state-wide bundh called by the ruling DMK and its allies in Tamil Nadu on October 1 on the Sethusamudram project.

The party also reiterated the demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi make Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi withdraw his offensive remarks against Lord Rama and tender an apology. If he failed to do so, the DMK ministers should be sacked from the Union Cabinet, it said.

Speaking to reporters at the state BJP headquarters “Kamalalayam”, which was damaged by the DMK workers recently, BJP national president Rajnath Singh said central forces must be deployed to protect the private and the public properties and to ensure security of the BJP and other supporters of  Ramar Sethu. He also expressed solidarity with AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha's stand on the Sethu.

Recalling that the same Congress Government banned Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses following protests from the Muslims,   Singh asked why it could not ask  Karunanidhi to withdraw the remarks and apologise.

On Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu’s remark that the Centre would not change the alignment of the Sethu project, he said, “People will compel Baalu and the DMK to realign the Sethu.” To a question on FIR filed against former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti who allegedly gave a call to behead Mr Karunanidhi, he said the BJP not only had dissociated itself from his statement but had also disapproved it.

Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said: “We are not going to be cowed down by such attacks. Ours is an ideological party and we will continue our movement on Ramar Sethu.”

Earlier, Rajnath Singh, Naidu and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi attended the funeral of former Union Minister and party president Jana Krishnamurthy who passed away in the city on Tuesday.