Chennai: Even as a faint act of support was shown from a few BJP cadre who decided to draw kolams in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), the DMK cadre painted the streets of Chennai with anti CAA and NRC kolams.
Chennai: Even as a faint act of support was shown from a few BJP cadre who decided to draw kolams in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), the DMK cadre painted the streets of Chennai with anti CAA and NRC kolams.
Responding to the call of their leader M.K. Stalin, which was later echoed by the Secretary of DMK Women Wing MP M.K. Kanimozhi, hundreds of DMK cadre from many parts of the city on Monday adorned their doorsteps with colourful kolams that had slogans against CAA and NRC.
DMK Chief M.K. Stalin on Sunday called out for a kolam protest after the city police arrested five students for drawing anti CAA, NRC kolams in the streets of Besant Nagar.
A mass kolam festival was organised by the Thiru V Ka nagar DMK cadre, wherein the sober streets of Otteri were adorned with more than 120 kolams. The DMK cadre and general public who began the festival around noon in Valluvan and Narayana Mesthri Street on Monday, voiced their agitation through their kolams.
The kolams had various slogans including “No to CAA, NRC”, in both English and Tamil, and also had other words demanding the centre to revoke the acts. Themes including national unity, religious harmony and unity in diversity could also ne seem in the kolams.
“We stand united and as joined dots in the light of the Constitution that acts as the base of our opinion and action, to revoke CAA and NRC,” read a kolam.
Women of various age groups participated in the protest and drew colourful kolams in front of their houses.
Keerthi, one of the protesters said that the aim of the protest was to show to the Government that people cannot be separated in the name of religion.
“We are one as Indians and we want to be together as Indians. Though we have our differences, we want the Government to know that we would always join together as dots and never bifurcated again,” said Deepa, another protester.
Savithri, another protester said that they would continue with such protests until the Centre revoked the acts.
Inspecting the kolams, DMK Women Wing Secretary Kanimozhi said that not just the DMK cadre, but also general public participated in the protest to show their dissent to the government.
“The Government is trying to suppress the protest of the people in many ways and the protests are spontaneous. We are continuing the protest that was started by the students and the general public. This is being done in support of the five students who were arrested by the police for drawing anti CAA NRC kolams. Not just here, various such protests including rangoli agitation and mehendi agitation are being held by people across the country” she said.
Claiming that the State Government was striving hard to please the centre in any ways possible, Kanimozhi said that AIADMK controlled police have gone too far by booking 8000 people for participating in the DMK rally led by Stalin,
Condemning the arrest of media persons by the police, kanimozhi said that there was no freedom of speech in Tamil Nadu.
When questioned about the involvement of congress in the initial implementation of the act, she denied the claims as she said they were not true.
“This is a false propaganda by the State Government and its ministers to defame the DMK alliance. It is the congress and DMK MPs who voted against the acts whereas the AIADMK and PMK MPs voted for it,” she said adding that they would continue to protest until the act was revoked.