Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K.S. Alagiri on Monday hit out at the State government for arresting residents who drew kolams in Chennai to mark their protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Talking to reporters after casting his vote at a polling station in his native Keerapalayam in the district, he said that the police crackdown was an utterly undemocratic and highly objectionable act. Freedom of speech is the democratic right of every citizen in the country but the arrest of women for registering their protest through kolam is unbecoming of a State government, he said.
Mr. Alagiri dared the government to arrest him as a kolam against the CAA and NRC had been drawn in front of his house. He wanted to know who actually instigated the police to resort to arrests because normally, this government would not take responsibility, as seen during the anti-Sterlite protest in Thoothukudi.
Referring to the rural local body polls, he said that the powers that be had been resorting to corrupt practices using money power, muscle power and authority of being in power.
Mr. Alagiri said that there were complaints that ₹1,000 in cash was distributed to voters. This would mean that the person elected would resort to corruption and they would do everything to compensate the expenditure incurred in bribing the voters. The principle of Panchayat Raj as propounded by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has been smashed by this unethical and objectionable practice, he added.
