CHENNAI: A group of youth holding placards, entered the waters at Marina Beach on Wednesday afternoon claiming that they were staging a protest in support of the ongoing protests by Tamil Nadu’s farmers.
Amidst much drama, the police personnel managed to persuade a few and pull out others from the waters. Speaking to reporters, the youth claimed that they dared to "risk their lives to express support for the farmers."
The farmers in the State's delta region are protesting against the hydrocarbon extraction projects being planned by the Narendra Modi government in agricultural villages in Tamil Nadu. A section of farmers are also protesting in New Delhi demanding the government to waive farmers’ loans due to poor rainfall, coupled with the Karnataka government's refusal to release water from the Cauvery river as per the Supreme Court directive.
In January this year, Marina beach was the centre of protests in support of Jallikattu, after lakhs of people spontaneously assembled there demanding a new law to enable conducting the bull taming sport. On Tuesday, there were calls for a similar assembly at Marina Beach.
However, police assembled a large number of personnel and asked a few shacks at the beach to shut down. Four youth were detained and later released by police on Wednesday, on suspicions that they had assembled to stage a protest.