While everyone fled from Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, on May 22 as the anti-Sterlite protests turned violent, there were some who rushed into the town. These people were not only the police, but also reporters and camerapersons who had to reach the port town in the shortest time possible and in whichever vehicle they could find. While some reporters from television channels, carrying their cameras and ‘live bags’, zipped on the roads in their cars, others zoomed into the epicentre of the riots on their bikes from Tirunelveli.
The otherwise busy four-lane road was almost deserted. One of my police friends had advised me to wear my identity card, so that I would not be mistaken for a protester and be lathi-charged by the police. While wearing identity cards was what saved the reporters from the angry police, the journalists who were capturing the violence on their cameras or mobile phones were not as lucky. They were identified and targeted by the mob, which also torched or badly damaged more than 50 two-wheelers and 15 four-wheelers on the premises of the Collectorate.
“These idiots will give the photos and videos to the police, which will become evidence against us. Just destroy it,” shouted one man, and his enraged group executed his orders immediately. The mob snatched a mobile phone from my journalist friend and broke it as he stood there helpless. Within the next few minutes, my colleague suffered a few blows on his back and his hand as he resisted the mob’s attempt to snatch his camera from him.
After crossing the uprooted stainless steel rails installed along the pathway leading to the Collectorate’s main building, I saw footwear, stones, and smoke. One man stood near a heap of torched bikes. “I bought my bike only 14 months ago after a lot of sacrifices and savings. It’s gone up in flames within a few minutes,” he said. He introduced himself as Shiva, an employee of the Department of Rural Development.
The watchman, Mani, who stood at a distance, had also lost his second-hand two-wheeler in the arson. When they both came to know that a few bullet-riddled bodies were lying around, they left the spot too.
While Shiva and Mani hope that insurance companies will compensate their loss to some extent, what compensation will ever make up for the 12 lives lost?
