The Dravidar Kazhagam Mangalsutra removal programme, scheduled to be organised on Tuesday (Tamil New Year Day) got courts nod with Justice Hari Paranthaman of the Madras High Court on late Monday evening giving a green signal for the Mangalsutra removal programme and beef festival. The judge asked the police to ensure that the organisers get all security for the event. Meanwhile, various Hindu organisations charged that the event is meant to hurt religious sentiments and create law and order problems in the State.
leaders of Hindu Munnani said they would demonstrate in front of Periyar Thidal, the DK headquarters where the Mangalsutra removal programme and beef festival are scheduled for Tuesday. Though the Chennai Police had banned all kinds of public meetings, processions and human chains from April 9 to April 24, Prince, deputy to DK leader K Veeramani told The Pioneer that both the programmes would be held as it was planned earlier. “We are not creating any law and order problem or disturbing the public order,” said Prince.
The Madras High Court heard arguments on late Monday evening in a petition filed by the DK seeking permission to organise the Mangalasutra removal programme and beef festival as a public function in the backdrop of the ban order by Chennai Police. The Mangalsutra removal function is said to be organised by the DK to proclaim liberation and freedom of women from oppression as well as slavery, according to Thilakavathy Senniappan, convener of the party’s women’s wing. But a spokesman of the Virat Hindustan Sangam, an outfit launched by Subramanian Swamy, in his representation to the Chennai Commissioner of Police, charged that campaign vehicles of the DK and Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam are displaying anti-Hindu messages, exhorting people to eat beef and eulogising the removal of mangalsutra near temples in Chennai, which are hurting religious sentiments of the Hindus.
Tamil Nadu is ushering in the New Year with the sense of religious intolerance peaking in the State. Attacks on writers Perumal Murugan and Puliyur Murugesan and the demand by Hindu extremists for banning the latest Kamal Haasan movie Uttama Villain, all in a span of three months, has dampened the cultural horizon of Tamil Nadu.