Politicians enter fray with anti-CAA, NRC kolams

This has pushed the government and the Centre-ruling BJP on the back foot, who justified the police action by citing law and order and attempts to create disorder.

DMK’s Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi was the first to join issue with the government on Sunday night itself by tweeting a photograph of a kolam outside her residence in Chennai. On Monday morning, party president MK Stalin put out the images of similar kolams that were drawn outside his residence and that of his father and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. Soon, party cadre joined in, drawing kolams outside their home and on the roads right from the morning.

Taking cue from it, cadres of Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi (MJK), an ally of the ruling AIADMK, but has been supporting DMK’s anti-CAA protests, led by Thamimun Ansari MLA took to the streets and main thoroughfares in Tirupur and elsewhere drawing anti-CAA kolams.

Going one step ahead, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president not only had a kolam drawn in front of his house in Keerapalayam in Cuddalore district, but also dared the government and police to arrest him.

Speaking to reporters after casting his vote in the local body elections on Monday, Alagiri slammed the AIADMK for arresting people in Besant Nagar in Chennai. It was undemocratic and objectionable, and unbecoming of a State government, he added.

Responding to widespread criticism from the opposition and also from the people, the government defended the police.

Talking to reporters in Thoothukudi, Information Minister Kadambur C Raju said the government was not against protests. “The government is not against protests as it is a democratic right. In fact, the government headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has witnessed more than 30,000 protests. But they should be according to law and after getting due permission,”he said.

Tamil Development Minister K Pandiarajan said the message of the kolams was intended to create problems. “The protesters were arrested not for drawing kolams, but for the message that was intended to spread disorder,” he said. The BJP said the kolam protests was an attempt by the DMK to instigate people to disrupt amity and harmony.

Ironically for the present dispensation, it was its late AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa who used kolams as a political tool perhaps for the first time. At the height of the 2G spectrum sale scam, she had asked the cadre to draw kolams with the 2G motif.

Apart from political leaders and workers, people with no political allignments also drew kolams outside their homes with anti-CAA, anti-NRC and in some cases, anti-Sterlite messages. They also took photos of the designs and put them up on social media platforms with hashtags such as#kolamagainstCAA, #kolamprotest and #CAAprotests.