Chennai: More than a week after the alleged rape of a student at the Anna University campus on December 23 came to light, triggering protests, the opposition AIADMK and BJP had kept the pot boiling by coming out with one charge after another, targeting the DMK government and once again vowing to not rest till the ‘real’ culprits were caught.
Though the police cracked down on a biryani outlet owner within five hours of the filing of the compliant by the second year engineering student, the opposition parties went gung ho over the crime and filed court cases and complaints with the National Commission for Women (NCW), besides organizing protests and launching social media campaigns.
AIADMK’s IT wing created a meme asking ‘who is that Sir,’ by referring to a mention in the FIR that was leaked through the internet, drawing flak for the opposition party leaders. The affected girl had reportedly told the police that the rapist had spoken to an unknown ‘Sir’ and also told her that she would have to meet him, too.
Based on that mention of a ‘Sir,’ AIADMK went to town suggesting that the arrested person, Gnanasekaran had partners in his crime. Though the police sought to dispel that notion by clarifying that the culprit had told the girl about the ‘sir’ only to intimidate her and prevent her from talking about what he did to her, the opposition parties struck to their stand and wanted to know the identity of the ‘sir.’
After holding protests in Chennai, the BJP’s women’s wing president, Uma Rathi, would be spearheading a rally from Madurai to Chennai on January 3, BJP State President K Annamalai, who was appreciative of the women’s wing for organizing agitations earlier, said on Tuesday. Once the protesters reached Chennai, they would meet Governor R N Ravi to urge him to take action against the government.
Even AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami hit out at the government for arresting members of his party’s IT wing who had held a flash mob agitation at a popular mall in the heart of the city. He claimed that the agitations organized by his party were disciplined and peaceful and were only aimed at creating awareness on women’s safety.
He demanded the withdrawal of the cases filed against his party cadre, who had held the protest with the slogan #SaveOurDaughter, out of political animosity after the government had turned jittery over the incident drawing the attention of the national media and AIADMK’s protests gaining popularity, helping the unmasking the DMK government’s façade.
Another opposition leader Seeman, chief coordinator of the Naam Tamilar Katchi, too, jumped into the protest bandwagon on Tuesday after keeping quiet for a week by trying to organize an agitation at Valluvar Kottam. After denying permission for the protest, police removed those who had turned up at the venue from the scene.
The party had announced that the protest would be undertaken by the women’s wing, youth wing and student wing.
