Protests all over Tamil Nadu take TVK to the next level

Chennai: The amazing response to the call by Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) founder president, Vijay, to the cadre of his fledgling party to hold protests all over the State demanding the retrieval of Katchatheevu, an island in Palk Straits that was acceded to Sri Lanka by the Union Government in 1974, surprised may as it pointed to the smooth transition the young brigade of film fans has undergone to become an aggressive political force.

From being a pet topic for political trolls when it was launched a year ago, the TVK has seemingly evolved as a party with a direction and definite goals now, proving right the pollsters who had given it the second place in the popularity race, second only to the ruling DMK, if one were to go by the crowds that its maiden protest drew across the State.

Though the State government had taken up the Katchatheevu and Tamil Nadu fishermen’s issue ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka, the TVK’s call for agitations in all centres evoked exemplary response that in some places in Chennai, like MGR Nagar, the protesters clashed with the police in true political style.

Police denied permission for the protests in many venues but the TVK cadre organized the agitation defying the orders there and in a few places where there was no bar on protests, huge crowds gathered to raise slogans and even caused traffic snarls like near the party’s headquarters on East Coast Road in Chennai.

Vijay issued a statement at the end of the day, blaming the DMK for the loss of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka and averring that its retrieval alone would provide a lasting solution to the ongoing problem faced by the Tamil Nadu fishermen venturing into the sea for their livelihood.

Since the repeated arrests of fishermen and the seizure of boats had become a recurring problem that even the Union Government had been unable to put an end to, all political parties in the State, including the DMK, have been raising their voice against it.

So the TVK joining the bandwagon was only seen as a political move when the call was given for the protest though the party that had been hitherto issuing statements had gone one step ahead. The call was for the protest not at one select venue but all over the State, which itself was ambitious.

But it was the success of the protest that pointed to the TVK’s evolution as a hardcore political party that had captured the public imagination. Ridiculed as ‘squirrels’ in social media so far, the young party cadre proved their mettle in political activism by enthusiastically taking part in the agitation, perhaps giving the jitters to the established political parties of State.