Chain of troubles

(October 26, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) As a part of its protests against the Sri Lankan government for its alleged genocide of the Tamil community, the DMK government had organised a human chain protest in support of the Sri Lankan Tamils yesterday in the city. The inauguration of the protest by the Chief Minister and DMK president Karunanidhi in front of the collectorate was welcomed by torrential rains right on the dot at 3 pm.

In fact the protest, which was supposed to have been conducted last week itself was postponed due to rains, which have been lashing the city, suburbs and other parts of Tamilnadu.

When the announcement was made, it was said that it would be a massive 60-km long human chain starting from North Chennai and ending at Chingleput passing through the arterial Mount Road and the Grand South Trunk Road.

Apart from the DMK, PMK, VCK, DK and the Left front also participated. The biggest set back for the DMK government was the non-cooperation of its main ally the Congress party, which boycotted the protest due to the anti-Congress and pro-LTTE voices raised at the Rameshwaram meeting, which was organised by the film industry.

Though the cadre strength of DMK alone is enough for the 60 kms human-chain, the government, in its bid to whip up ‘solidarity’ among the people, unofficially compelled the schools and colleges to send their students for participating in the protests.

As the rains, with a record of 8 cm within two hours, lashed the city, the party cadres from various parts of the city and suburb could not reach in time due to heavy and unprecedented traffic jams at all parts of the city. Only a few people from the film fraternity participated.

The state ministers, MLAs, party functionaries and even the Chief Minister’s family members including Dayanidhi Maran were present. After inaugurating the event, the Chief Minister passed through the stretch by car stopping intermittently to cheer the participants.

Finally the human-chain, which was broken at many places ended as a damp squib. The success or the failure of the protest is immaterial, as far as the general public is concerned. In fact, yesterday’s event turned out to be a nightmarish experience for thousands of people.

The rains flooded the roads and streets and inundated many areas. The traffic was chaotic, with snarls everywhere from afternoon to midnight and the poor police force was found wanting.

It was poignant in a disturbing sort of way to see the shivering school children and college students standing drenched along the human chain.

It is outrageous that the school and college students are ‘unofficially’ made to participate in a purely political event, which doesn’t have the support of majority of the people.

Thousands of people got stranded in different areas and they had to walk back to their homes from their work place. Most of them including students were put to hardship for hours and reached home very late in the night.

Hundreds of passengers, who had booked by trains and buses to go to their native places to celebrate Deepavali with their families, missed their respective trains and buses, as they reached the stations late due to traffic jams. It was also painful to see the ambulances with critical patients, getting stranded in the traffic jams.

A recent High Court judgment had ruled that the political parties must not occupy too much of public space for their demonstrations, meetings and other forms of events causing hardship and misery for the people.

But then, when the politicians have heeded such rulings? The torrential rains are a natural calamity, which are beyond human control, but the sufferings because of the consequent traffic jam and the misery caused by the human-chain are unwarranted.

What the ruling party has achieved by this ‘inhuman’ protest is nothing but an exhibition of ego, arrogance and self-interest. The Sri Lankan Tamils have benefited nothing out of this, while the local Tamils suffered a lot.

-Editorial of the News Today, evening news paper based in Chennai - Sri Lanka Guardian