Chennai: Each and every opposition party wanting to capture power by ousting the DMK from power has found in the alleged rape inside the Anna University premises a weapon to defame the ruling party and replace it after the 2026 Assembly elections and was hence keen on keeping the controversy alive with a view to gaining maximum political mileage out of it.
With the State government expected to approach the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court order against the Chennai Police Commissioner and the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the rape charge, the AIADMK and the BJP were planning to file caveats to ensure that they were heard before any decision was made.
It was those two main opposition parties that went to town with the issue, a day after it came to light, and left no stone unturned in picking on the government and police. It was people connected with the AIADMK and BJP who went to the High Court and obtained the orders that could be damaging to the government.
The other opposition parties came into the picture one after another later though the incident happened on December 23. Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi was the last one to stage a protest against the incident but was prevented by the police. Ahead of it came the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam, whose founder president, Vijay, circulated an effusive handwritten note expressing concern over women’s safety.
Before most of the parties took the protest path, the accused, Gnanasekaran, was arrested by the police that too within hours of the victim filing a formal complaint. While the parties were charting their own agitation paths, some of them converged at the Raj Bhavan by calling on the Governor R N Ravi to involve him in the issue. Particularly Vijay and BJP State president K Annamalai who held discussions with Ravi.
From the manner in which the protests unfolded, it was clear that the opposition parties see in the crime an opportunity to defame the ruling party. It is learnt that they would like to keep the issue alive in various forums to create an impression that the DMK was behind the rape and that it was protecting the rapist.
They also want to create an impression that the rapist was not acting alone – social media is abuzz with unknown experts waxing eloquence on a man indulging in such a crime could not have done it without political and other backing – putting the police and the government in a fix if the ‘Sir’ popularized by the IT wing of the AIADMK was just a figment of imagination.
Police claim that it was just an imagination of the culprit who wanted to intimidate the victim through the name dropping of a fictitious character has already been pooh poohed by the opposition political parties that hope to garner votes by blaming the DMK for the crime.
