A drama was enacted at the Thanjavur Railway junction when MDMK general secretary Vaiko led a group of cadres owing allegiance to various political affiliations staged a rail roko in support of farmers’ protest against Karnataka constructing reservoirs across the Cauvery.
A strong police posse prevented Mr. Vaiko and surging protesters from entering the junction premises by erecting barricades. The protesters’ plan was to picket the Tiruchi-Chennai Egmore Cholan Express but police thwarted them and the train quietly left the junction unhindered.
While the push and pull play was being enacted outside the junction, around 20 cadres belonging to the People’s Art and Literature Association (PALA), masquerading as passengers, pulled the emergency chain of the Nagore-Thanjavur-Tiruchi Passenger as it began to leave, catching the police and railway authorities off guard.
The activists addressed the fellow passengers of their intention to detain the train, jumped out and climbed the locomotive engine raising slogans denouncing Karnataka and the Centre. The train was detained for about 30 minutes.
By then, Mr. Vaiko and other protesters broke through the police cordon, entered the junction premises and found that there was no train to force a halt. Standing on the track, Mr. Vaiko hit out at the Karnataka government, terming it sectarian. He also criticised the Centre for “ignoring” Karnataka’s excesses. If rivers were not nationalised, then the present inter State rivers might become international rivers, he said.
Earlier, Naam Tamizhar Katchi leaders eulogised slain LTTE supremo V. Prabhakaran and promised a separate Tamil Eelam.
