The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : DPA protest disrupts traffic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

DPA protest disrupts traffic

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, JULY 23. The regular budget session of the State Assembly began this morning, after the House was adjourned yesterday after condolence motions were adopted. But the drama took place outside the House, first in front of the Secretariat and then on Anna Salai here.

The MLAs belonging to parties in the Democratic Progressive Alliance, protesting against the AIADMK Government's "undemocratic ways", staged a mock Assembly on Rajaji Salai. They later blocked traffic at the Anna statue junction for nearly an hour as they were "insulted by the police."

The police publicly declared that the MLAs were being "released" even though they were not arrested in the first place! The police said they were forced to make a contradictory announcement because they wanted to defuse the situation and restore traffic. The MLAs refused to end their road roko if the police did not make a public announcement that they were being released.

The MLAs maintained that they were arrested in front of the Secretariat and hence had to be either released or remanded to custody. When they insisted, the police told them that they were being released. For the record — the police said — the MLAs were only removed.

The MLAs, who first protested against the holding of a short Assembly session by observing a fast and a mock Assembly session, later squatted on the road objecting to the police "insult".

Unfolding drama

The drama in front of the Secretariat unfolded at 10 a.m. with 78 MLAs, belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Pattali Makkal Katchi, the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India, raising slogans for nearly 30 minutes against the "authoritarian and anti-democratic rule" of the AIADMK Government. Then the DMK leader, Arcot N.Veerasamy, announced that a parallel Assembly session would be held right on the road. The CPI(M)leader in the Assembly, J. Hemachandran, was `unanimously elected' Speaker.

Even as these scenes were being enacted, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, G.K. Vasan, arrived to greet the agitating MLAs. He watched the `proceedings' for a while.

Two police officers — the Joint Commissioner, C. Sylendra Babu, and the Deputy Commissioner, S.N. Seshasai — requested the MLAs to end their fast or shift the venue to Valluvar Kottam. Mr. Veerasamy, spokesperson for the MLAs, said they would not move from the spot unless they were arrested.

Policemen missing

At this, the police asked the MLAs to get into waiting chartered MTC buses and as the vehicles reached the Government Estate police station, the few policemen there went missing. There was no police officer to say where the MLAs would be accommodated. Infuriated at this, Durai Murugan, M.K. Stalin (both DMK), G.K. Mani (PMK) and S.R. Balsubramaniam (Congress) decided that the MLAs block the road. "They told us that they were taking us to the Rajaji Hall. When we reached there, there was no one," said the DMK leader in the House, K. Anbazhagan.

As news of the road roko spread, DMK and PMK men arrived from nearby areas to join the protest. The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary, Vaiko, arrived there to greet the protesters. The police pleaded with the leaders that traffic had come to a standstill up to Tambaram and that people were affected. The leaders told the police that they would explain to the people why they had staged the road roko. They said the people would accept their argument and put up with the slight inconvenience.

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