Madurai, May 31: The gruesome attack on Tamil daily ‘Dinakaran’, in which three employees of the newspaper were killed, was shameful and reminded me of the excesses of the emergency era, senior journalist Praful Bidwai said today.
Addressing a protest demonstration, held here to press for the arrest of M K Azhagiri, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, for instigating the May 9 attack, he said the violent attack was deplorable and the State Government should take appropriate steps to restore people's confidence in the system.
Mr Bidwai alleged that the DMK Government was not pursuing the case with the seriousness it required and was attempting to wash its hands off with the CBI inquiry.
Seeking to locate the issue in the larger context of globalisation being thrust on the people by trampling upon constitutionally guaranteed rights and the people's struggle to retrieve their rights, he called upon the civil society to be more vigilant. Even the judiciary would not come to the aid of the people in this struggle, he warned.
Speaking on the occasion Henry Tiphagne, Executive Editor of People's Watch, a rights NGO, said the prime demand of the protest held under the aegis of the Committee of Human Rights Monitors and Protectors, was the arrest of M K Azhagiri and his loyalists, including City Mayor G Thenmozhi.
Mr Tiphagne said further, the bail granted by the High Court to Mr Azhagiri, prime accused in the former minister Tha Kiruttinan murder case, should be cancelled. Since all the incidents on that fateful day were inter-related, all of them should be brought under the ambit of the CBI inquiry, he added.
He also demanded the arrest of District SP, T S Anbu and the range DSP Rajaram on the charge of dereliction of duty and aiding the perpetrators of the violence.
The General Secretary of the Tamil Nationalist Communist Party P Maniyarasan demanded Mr Karunanidhi owning moral responsibility for the incident.
All the speakers, including T Pandiyan of People’s Democratic Liberation Front, pointed out that this incident was a pointer to the dangers posed by the politics of rowdyism and power exercised by extra-constitutional authorities.