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A day of high drama

Shobha Warrier in Madras

The roads of Madras were deserted.

A handful of vehicles competed with pedestrians, with the vehicles winning more often than not.

All shops had downed their shutters and an eerie calm prevailed.

Anna Arivalayam, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam headquarters, was teeming with journalists, agitated party workers and sundry vehicles.

That is where the Sun TV office is also located. And that is where DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan along with the other partners of the National Democratic Alliance was meeting the press to declare the future course of action.

The NDA decided to observe a bandh on July 2 in protest against the arrest of former chief minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi.

There was total chaos inside the huge campus of the party headquarters when leader after leader came out and decided to talk to the press separately.

As Bharatiya Janata Party leader L Ganesan's vehicle moved, frustrated DMK workers shouted, "Please do something, please try to bring justice. Please bring our leader back."

Some women were seen wailing loudly beating their breasts; inebriated men also cried loudly.

Distraught party workers who were guarding the headquarters complained, "In the morning, police rushed in and arrested all the party workers who were present here. They even smashed the wash basins and closets in the toilets. The Sun TV office was also ransacked. What is happening here? Is there an emergency?"

Suddenly all the party workers started running towards the gate, mouthing abuses. The reason for the mad rush was the arrival of a police van.

Men and women rushed outside and squatted on the road; some of them preferred to lie down on the tarred road that was burning in the 40ºC afternoon heat. All of them shouted slogans demanding the release of Karunanidhi and criticising the 'undemocratic' rule of Jayalalitha.

Policemen and women, all equipped with batons and shields, marched out of the police van and stood menacingly by the agitators. Those who registered their protests by squatting on the road were dragged to the police van and pushed inside. Even women weren't spared.

Once the police were satisfied with their haul, they left.

Peace and silence prevailed for a while.

Suddenly, a speeding police jeep tried to enter the party premises, which caught the workers unawares for a second.

But in no time the gate was slammed shut and all the workers stood there as one huge human wall, guarding it. When some angry workers started pelting stones at the police, a woman appealed to them to desist. The stone throwing stopped.

Moments later the police jeep once again tried to browbeat the human wall and enter the party office. But in vain.

"Don't go near the crowd. The police will beat you up. They are merciless to journalists too," a journalist friend warned me. To back it up he showed me the bruises he had suffered when covering the pre-dawn arrest of Karunanidhi.

Following his advice, I stood in a corner and watched the police take guard to attack.

It took another half an hour for the police to realise the futility of challenging the human spirit and for me to come out and enjoy the freedom of the outside world.

As one watched the drama from outside, along with many passers-by, a man in torn clothes came and asked, "Did you see what came on television?"

I said, yes. The man was an autorickshaw driver and not a supporter of the DMK, he asserted. But his anguish was clear.

"This is great injustice," he said. "He was in politics even before this lady was born. How can anyone justify the way an old person was treated? I just couldn't believe my eyes. He is no ordinary citizen but a 78-year-old man and one of the most senior leaders. I don't know what is happening to our country," he lamented.

"No Tamilian will ever forgive her for what she has done to him," the rickshaw driver warned.

"Do you remember how she was arrested?" he continued. "The police stood outside till she finished her breakfast and prayers. But Kalaignar [Karunanidhi] was humiliated and insulted." The words tumbling out were rivalling the tears running down his cheeks.

An electrician who was watching us wanted to know whether the police could arrest anyone without a warrant. "I am not an educated person, and I do not know law," he said. "Please tell me whether the police can."

He continued, "What I cannot understand is why the police went there at night. What was the hurry? In my memory, I have never witnessed a scene like that!"

When he muttered that he was sorry now, I asked whether he had voted for the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He first refused to answer my question saying, "I do not want to divulge whom I voted for."

After a while, he murmured, "I thought a change would be better for the state, but I never imagined that such a thing would happen. After all, he was no ordinary man. He has been in politics for 50 years. Have these policemen not learnt to respect such a senior person? I am disgusted."

He then walked away.

Karunanidhi's Arrest: The Complete Coverage

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