CHENNAI: The ‘justice rally’ taken out in Madurai by the women’s wing leaders of the State BJP on Friday, demanding the arrest of the culprits involved in the rape incident in Anna University with the plan to reach Chennai and handover a memorandum to Governor R N Ravi, had its echo in the State capital as BJP State president K Annamalai reacted to it.
‘Our valiant sisters of Tamil Nadu BJP have assembled in Madurai despite desperate attempts of the DMK Govt to suppress our voices seeking justice,’ he said in a message on X, adding: ‘The cadres of BJP will, time and again, rise from the ashes of oppression to fight for the people of TN.’
He said the government should realize that no amount of intimidation could deter could deter them from their protest till all those involved in the sexual assault were put behind bars and justice was served to the victim.
On the other hand acolytes of BJP’s rival parties posted a video of a woman dressed as Kannagi being harassed by a man during the course of the protest and a media report that folk artistes were brought from Tirunelveli for the event, suggesting that the crowd that gathered in Madurai was mobilized from outside the party.
A media clipping of a woman telling before the camera that she hailed from Tirunelveli and had nothing to do with the BJP was also posted on social media
Since the BJP had been harping on the ‘suppression’ unleashed by the DMK government, State Minister for HR & CE P K Sekar Babu clarified why the protestors were not being allowed to carry on with their demonstrations.
Asked about it by media persons in Chennai, he said that the protests disrupted traffic movement and caused chaos on the roads leading to students, office-goers, travelers and others unable to reach their destinations on time.
He asked the media persons if any of the protesters had been charged with any offence and arraigned in court. They were only being removed from the scene to facilitate the return of normalcy that was needed for people to go about their lives.
Otherwise, people would miss flights, trains, buses, offices and classes if the protests were allowed to continue causing traffic disruptions and chaos on the roads, he said.
Annamalai, however, condemned the police arresting BJP State unit president Uma Rathi, Modakurichi MLA C K Saraswathi and BJP national executive member Khusboo Sundar in Madurai and demanded their immediate release.
Another BJP leader alleged that the women protestors were being humiliated by detaining them in a marriage hall that had a flock of goat occupying part of it. Even Kushboo was detained in the same marriage hall belonging to the Madurai Goat Seller Association. Some of the protesters had complained for an unbearable stench in the hall, the social media post said.
