The Hindu : Statewide protests against Stalin arrest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 11, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Statewide protests against Stalin arrest

By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau

CHENNAI April 10. Hours after the midnight arrest of the DMK youth wing leader, M.K. Stalin, 43 other Opposition MLAs including three women legislators, who protested inside and outside the Tamil Nadu Assembly, were arrested today, even as at least 12,000 DMK workers, including several MLAs and an MP, were taken into custody in the State. Most of them were being released.

Tension gripped several parts of the State from the wee hours as hordes of DMK workers descended on the streets, staged protests and shouted slogans against "abuse of power by the despotic Jayalalithaa regime". About 35 buses were damaged in stonethrowing.

But the real drama was inside the Assembly, where the Congress, the PMK, the CPI and the CPI (M), in a show of solidarity with the DMK, demanded a discussion on the arrests of Mr. Stalin and other DMK MLAs and shouted slogans against the "autocratic" AIADMK regime. Seconds after the House met, the Opposition leaders asked the Speaker, K. Kalimuthu, to adjourn question hour and take up the discussion. But he turned down their plea and ordered eviction of the entire bunch of slogan-shouting Opposition MLAs. Unmindful, the MLAs, including the State Congress president, S. Balakrishnan, staged a series of protests in the lobby and later on the busy road outside the Assembly complex as well. They were taken to a nearby police station and let off in the afternoon.

On a day of dramatic political developments, which brought the secular Opposition parties further closer, the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, promptly arrived at the station to meet the Opposition MLAs, who took to the streets to protest the arrest of Mr. Stalin and four other DMK MLAs late last night. The State Congress working president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, the CPI secretary, R. Nallakannu, and the CPI (M) leader, N. Sankaraiah, also came to the station.

However, unfazed by the united Opposition protest, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, told the Assembly that Mr. Stalin and four other DMK MLAs, were arrested on a complaint from the principal of the Queen Mary's College and on charges of unlawfully trespassing into the campus, threatening a watchman and inciting the students into agitation on April 8.

Significantly, the DMK's official ally at the Centre, BJP did not join the Opposition protest either inside or outside the Assembly. Meanwhile, the police said, about 370 persons had been arrested for specific offences of throwing stones on passing buses in various parts of Tamil Nadu.