Amid protests, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ram Rajya Rath Yatra enters Tamil Nadu

Amid protests by various political parties and organisations, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ram Rajya Rath Yatra — which aimed at mobilising support for a Ram temple in Ayodhya — entered Tirunelveli district on Tuesday from neighbouring Kerala even as police detained several political party leaders to prevent them from holding protest in the district where Section 144 has been promulgated.

With a large number of police deployed in the area, the Rath Yatra reached Shencottah in Tirunelveli with hundreds of devotees welcoming it. Members of several parties including MDMK, DMK, VCK and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi blocked traffic in protest.

All the protestors were detained by the police. DMK members were briefly detained in a marriage hall and released later.

Even as the Rath Yatra entered the state, DMK-led opposition legislators created a ruckus in the state Assembly seeking a ban on the yatra and condemned the AIADMK government for supporting Hindutva groups which were conspiring to disturb the communal harmony of the country. After being evicted from the Assembly en masse, DMK legislators led by MK Stalin staged a road roko in front of Fort St George and raised slogans against the AIADMK government.

DMK chief Stalin said that when the Supreme Court seized the Ram temple case, organising a yatra to construct the shrine “is contempt of the top court”.

Defending the government’s decision to allow the yatra, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said that all the religions have equal rights and no one could ban it in a democratic country.

Saying that Tamil Nadu was secular, Rajinikanth said, “Police should protect communal harmony... I am confident that our government will definitely do it... It (Rath Yatra) should not give room for any communal flare-up.”