Cordoning off Ambedkar memorial in Chennai until CM’s visit leads to commotion

Madras High Court former judge D. Hariparanthaman expressed displeasure over restrictions imposed on public movement

Madras High Court former judge D. Hariparanthaman addresses the gathering after a scheduled caste couple had to marry outside Ambedkar’s memorial in Chennai because it was cordoned off until Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s visit to pay respects on his birth anniversary on Sunday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The police’s decision to cordon off the Ambedkar Memorial at Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai until the visit of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, to pay tributes on his birth anniversary, on Sunday (April 14, 2024) led to a commotion with Madras High Court former judge D. Hariparanthaman himself expressing displeasure over such police action.

The retired judge had gone to the memorial to attend a self-respect marriage scheduled to take place at 8 am but found the couple, their family members and friends to have not been allowed inside the memorial citing protocol. They had been asked to wait until the Chief Minister pays a visit to the memorial.

When the former judge explained that the self-respect marriage would get over in hardly 10 minutes, the police agreed to allow him and the couple alone inside the memorial but not anyone else. However, he wondered how could such a restriction be imposed on family members and friends.

Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam president Kolathur Mani was also told that he alone would be permitted to enter the memorial to pay respects to Ambedkar. Aggrieved over such restriction, the marriage between the Scheduled Caste couple was performed outside the memorial after registering strong protest to police action.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Hariparanthaman said: “We are not making it an issue because we do not want this government to earn a bad name on the birth anniversary of Ambedkar. We were prepared to leave the premises before the Chief Minister arrives but it is not proper to prevent us from entering until he arrives.”

He also said: “We have actually been supporting the ruling DMK in the ongoing Lok Sabha poll campaign and had also decided to take the oath ‘Let all of us vote and save the Constitution.’ This oath was supposed to be taken in front of the statue of Ambedkar memorial today but now we are forced to take it outside the memorial.”

The judge also recalled that two publishers K. Senthamizhselvi and Niranjan Vijayan had filed a writ petition in the High Court this month complaining about a similar restriction imposed by the police last year because of which the general public were able to pay respects at the memorial only for two hours.

Justice S.M. Subramaniam of the High Court had disposed of the writ petition on Friday after recording the submission of the Director of Information and Public Relations R. Vaithinathan that the police would fix time slots and that all arrangements such as drinking water, tents and seating arrangements would be made.

Subsequently, when an urgent mention was made on Saturday night complaining about sufficient tents not having been put up, Justice Subramaniam drove down to the memorial along with Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran and the petitioners’ counsel A.B. Karl Marx Siddharthar to take stock of the situation.

“The judge came to the memorial at 11 pm last night and inspected the arrangements. Despite all this, the police prevented public entry from 7 am till 10:20 am today,” Mr. Siddharthar said.