CHENNAI: Around 500 people from Northeastern States gathered at Marina on Sunday to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. However, city police who have barred people from gathering at Marina without permission volunteered to transport them to Valluvar Kottam in hired vehicles. They were taken there and persuaded to disperse. Since the protesters did not seek permission, police advised them to get due permission to hold the protest at Valluvar Kottam on another day. A police officer said the protesters did not know the procedure. They were not aware that protests were not permitted on Marina. Police moved the crowd keeping in mind the cricket match between West Indies and India at Chepauk.
CAA is anti-people: Stalin
DMK president M K Stalin on Sunday said his party would have not opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had it provided refugee status to all those including Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims. The DMK released a video in response to AIADMK’s criticism against it as to whether it had ever spoken a word about getting Indian citizenship for Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka when it shared power at the Centre for 17 years. In the clip, Stalin termed the Act “unconstitutional, anti-people, divisive and regressive”.
He alleged the law discriminated against Muslims and used religion as a bench mark to distinguish between people and therefore divide them. He also alleged the BJP had used CAA to divert people’s attention from issues such as economic distress and job losses. Referring to large-scale protests against the law, he said DMK also had protested against the legislation in the State.