Tamil Nadu: DMK Government Names Temple Road After Karunanidhi, Faces Massive Protest

A huge crowd gathered at a protest rally led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai at Tiruvarur. He was demonstrating against the renaming of Tiruvarur – Thiyagarajar temple car (rath) street — after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Leader, the late M Karunanidhi, by the state government.

Massive Crowds Matter: Tiruvarur is the native town of Karunanidhi, and a DMK bastion.

• The massive crowd for the BJP state president’s rally in Tiruvarur should raise alarm bells in the DMK. The ruling party has been trying to target Hindu temples and institutions in the state and is seeing forceful protests by the BJP.

• A few days back, the ruling party tried to ban a 500-year-old ritual conducted by Dharmapuram Adheenam. It had to revoke its ban, within days, after a strong protest.

At the protest, Annamalai said that the renaming of the temple street after a DMK leader is a misadventure by the government.

Tiruvarur Youth Commits Suicide: On the same day, a youngster, Manikandan from Nannilam in Tiruvarur district, committed suicide after he was allegedly asked to pay a bribe to officials to release funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.

The youth recorded a video narrating his plight and anguish due to the corruption at the block development office.

K Annamalai met with his family to pay condolences.

Bottom line: The outpouring of a massive crowd, that too, at the ruling party’s bastion must make the state government think. The BJP state unit has been raising the pitch and trying to mobilise public anger against the anti-Hindu policies of the DMK government.