Chennai, March 10: Over 100 men belonging to the Tamil Maanila Congress were picked up by the police from all over the State on Monday for attempting to set fire copies of a Tamil bi-weekly. They were later let off.The protest, sparked off by a report, which appeared in the magazine alleging `rumblings' within the TMC with partymen seeking `a change' in the leadership of the party following the TMC's poor showing in the elections, is threatening to snowball into a `noisy' issue.TMC cadres were picked up in Tiruchi, Pudukkottai, Mayiladuthurai, Thanjavur, Perambalur and Tiruvarur in the state for burning copies of the latest issue of the Tamil magazine, police said.
On Sunday morning at a Women's Day celebration by the TMC's women's wing, the party's South Chennai District president Muktha Srinivasan had urged partymen to stage a `silent sit-in' demonstration in front of the office of the Tamil magazine to register their protest against the `mischievous' report.
Despite an appeal from treasurer DSudarsanam to `sober' down and give up the `agitation' plan, a small group of TMC cadres led by Muktha Srinivasan staged a sit-in at the office of the magazine in question. They were later joined by party Rajya Sabha MP, Peter Alphonse and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, S. Balakrishnan. Peter Alphonse told The Indian Express that he had dissuaded a staff photographer of the magazine from taking any photographs during the `silent' protest. However, when the photographer continued to click, the angry MP snatched the camera away but returned it soon after.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
