Protected, Ram rath yatra comes to Tamil Nadu

Tirunelveli/Chennai: The saffron-drenched 'Rama Rajya Rath Yatra' entered Tamil Nadu Tuesday morning amid chanting of praise of Lord Rama and Bharat Mata by a large gathering of believers showering petals.

Several leaders of opposition parties, Muslim outfits and Tamil nationalists held demonstrations and courted arrest in opposing the yatra's journey. The protesters wanted the AIADMK government to ban its passage through Tamil Nadu alleging that the Ayodhya-Rameswaram motorised chariot had a devious divisive agenda threatening communal amity.

Prohibitory order in Tirunelveli district and a strong posse of policemen led by SP Dr Arun Sakthikumar ensured law and order despite hard efforts by the protesters to block the yatra and breach peace. The yatra had begun at Ayodhya on February 20 and will culminate at a public rally to be addressed by the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at Thiruvananthapuram on March 24, after passing through Rameswaram and Kanyakumari.

The UP CM had flagged off the yatra, which has five main objectives — construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, exerting pressure on the Central and the state governments to include lessons about Lord Ram in the school syllabus and to declare Thursday as the weekly holiday instead of Sunday.

Rejecting the opposition demand for a ban on the yatra, Chief Minister K. Palaniswami said in a democracy, people of all religions had equal rights to practice their faith and it was the government's responsibility to protect them. The yatra had passed through five states without any opposition and it was only in Tamil Nadu that the opposition parties were raising a hue and cry giving it political colour, he said.

DMK raised the issue in the state Assembly and stalled the proceedings despite repeated requests from Speaker P. Dhanapal to maintain order as the CM had explained the government position. The DMK members, led by Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin, were evicted as they kept shouting. The Congress allies staged walkout in support.

Stalin along with his MLAs sat on the road outside the Assembly but police removed them to a marriage hall before releasing all. The DMK leader told reporters that the government had allowed the yatra despite its agenda “to instigate communal riots”.  When the Supreme Court was to deliver verdict on the Ram temple case, organising this yatra for building the shrine “is clearly contempt of the top court”, he said and wondered whether the TN government was being run by “the AIADMK or the BJP”. Actor-turned politician Kamal Haasan slammed the government for permitting the yatra which carried “a divisive political agenda”.

'Superstar' Rajinikanth, who is set to enter active politics, struck a note of caution, saying any kind of communal tension should be prevented.
BJP state president Tamilisai Soundarajan wondered why the yatra faced opposition only in Tamil Nadu, a land nurtured by spiritual gurus.