Chennai Shaheen Bagh revived to protest arrest of PFI members

CHENNAI: Protestors gathered at Kannan Roundana in Old Washermenpet, which had earned the sobriquet ‘Chennai Shaheen Bagh’ in early 2020 when it became the site for a continuous agitation against the CAA and NPR, on Friday to express their anger against the arrest of over 100 office-bearers of Popular Front of India (PFI) and Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) all over the country.

Condemning the raids on the offices and residences of PFI and SDPI leaders on Thursday, over 1000 people, including a large number of women, gathered to revive the ‘Chennai Shaheen Bagh’ that was given up due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

The protest venue in Old Washermenpet that involves several business streets, on which people sat down for days without break, was named after Shaheen Bagh of Delhi, which was the main protest venue in the country against CAA and NPR that was sought to be brought in by the BJP government in 2019.

In Delhi, the Shaheen Bagh protests that happened from December 15, 2019, to March 24, 2020, were spearheaded by women. In Chennai, too, the number of women participants was overwhelming in 2020.

On Saturday, the same Kannan Roundana resounded with the same spirit of protest as several Islamic movements and the Mosques coordination committee had called for the agitation to express their opposition to the Union Government misusing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intimidate people belonging to the minority communities.

The DMK, too, came out against the raids by NIA and ED, saying that it was an instance of misusing the law. The party spokesman, T K S Elangovan, said the PFI leaders had been arrested with no evidence against them.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi general secretary Thol Thirumavalavan said the crackdown on PFI and SDPI was an intimidatory tactic employed against all democratic forces. He accused the BJP government of intimidating and oppressing members of the Muslim community.

In a statement on Friday, Thirumavalavan said that both the democratic organizations functioned in a transparent manner and even accommodated members of all communities.

Many other political leaders like the coordinator of Tamil Nadu Makkal Urimai Peravai (Tamil Nadu People’s Rights Federation), K Kurinji, and Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, K Ramakrishnan condemned the raids and arrests.

Kurinji called for the dissolution of the NIA and Ramkrishnan said that the BJP was carrying out the raids to create a tense situation with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in mind.