DMK volunteers attacked Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s convoy in Ramanathapuram with stones and footwear after BJP volunteers made provocative gestures against them for attempting to show black flags to the Minister.
The DMK volunteers were standing about 200 metres away from the Parthibanur junction to show black flags to the Minister to protest against the Centre’s refusal to form the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) when the incident happened. Police prevented them from surging forward by holding them back with ropes.
The volunteers resorted to stone throwing when BJP volunteers accompanying the Minister in the convoy, stopped at the junction, abused DMK cadre and made obscene gestures against them.The Minister’s car just passed and the stones and footwears landed at her convoy. The DMK volunteers were later dispersed.
DMK’s district secretary Suba. Tha. Diwakaran, who led the protest said they assembled to register their protest in peaceful manner but were provoked by the BJP volunteers.
Ms. Sitharaman is on a day’s visit to the district to review the implementation of ‘Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’, the Centre’s village self governance scheme. She is visiting Kallikudi and Kayalur, two remote Dalit villages in Paramakudi block.
