Chennai/Cuddalore/Erode: Black balloons and pigeons with black ribbons took to the skies with hard messages protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Chennai for the Defence Expo at Thiruvidanthai, 40 km from the city, on Thursday as all the political parties, sans the ruling AIADMK, stepped up their Cauvery agitation to top decibels.
With the Prime Minister using the defence helicopter through almost his entire trip -- airport-DefExpo-IIT-airport - to avoid the black flag demonstrations, the Cauvery protesters claimed yet another 'victory' close on the heels of the success in 'driving away' the IPL from Chennai. The chopper hops also drew some snide comments from the protest-leaders; for instance, DMK working president M. K. Stalin wondered if the PM would get his votes (during elections) from the skies without bothering to come down to the people and their real woes. He was speaking at Cuddalore at the end of his marathon march for Cauvery, which he had launched at Tiruchy on April 7.
In the short road trip within the IIT to speak at the adjoining Cancer Institute, the PM faced a low-intensity protest as some students raised placards against his government for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board despite the Supreme Court order of February 16 setting a deadline of six weeks. The hashtag #GoBackModi in twitter did brisk traffic, apart from the on-ground demos such as sloganeering and blocking roads in several parts of Chennai and elsewhere in the state.
Police said over 3,080 protesters were taken into custody. They were all released later in the evening. In fact, there was some delay in releasing Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) leader Seeman and a few of his Tamil 'nationalist' allies held at a marriage hall near the airport, but they too were let off after film director Bharatiraja did a sit-in protest refusing to avail the police release offer until friend Seeman too was freed.
PM spent a brief time exchanging pleasantries with the proprietors and senior editors of TN's mainstream media during his IIT visit. He expressed regret for not being able to spend more time with them as his flight to Delhi was about ready to take off and he had to rush back
