Anti-liquor protests snowball in Tamil Nadu state

Chennai: Protests by opposition parties against liquor is not only getting viral but also turned sporadically violent in the state. Tired of picketing and sloganeering, a few protesters indulged in mild violence to pep up their agitation to get the ruling AIADMK to down Tasmac shop shutters.

The epicenter of the anti-liquor agitation shifted from Kanyakumari, where Gandhian Sasi Perumal died fighting for prohibition, to MDMK general secretary Vaiko’s native village of Kalingapatti in Tirunelveli where police fired teargas and wielded batons with force to disperse an angry mob that allegedly attacked a Tasmac shop and a couple of tipsy revelers who were trying to buy a little extra ‘booze’ to get high.

Even while cops struggled to contain the angry MDMK cadre and villagers who have been protesting along with Vaiko’s 99-year-old mother Mariammal for the closure of a Tasmac shop there since Saturday, more trouble ‘arrived’ when VCK leader Thol Tirumavalavan came to Kalingapatti to express solidarity with Vaiko.    

Back in Chennai, lieutenants of 'captain' Vijayakanth registered their protest by attempting to ransack a Tasmac shop at MGR Nagar. The late Sasi Perumal was back in headlines again as his 14-year-old daughter Swathanthara Devi and eldest son Vivek were arrested in Salem for observing a hunger strike in front of a liquor shop.

State Congress chief EVKS Elangovan who was on his way to Sasi Perumal's native place, joined the dharna soon after hearing the news. Elangovan's TNCC was the latest after CPI, CPI (M) and AAP to extend support to Tuesday's bandh call jointly issued by Vaiko, Tiruma and MMK president M.H. Jawahirullah.

An emboldened civil society has also joined the anti-liquor protests with several groups organising demonstrations across the state to muster support for prohibition. Trader's association leader T Vellaiyan has appealed to his member traders to down shutters on Tuesday to support the bandh. DMK president M Karunanidhi, who promised prohibition if voted back to power in 2016, made an appeal on Sunday to the ruling AIADMK to respect public sentiment and announce prohibition immediately.