Chennai: Thousands of people, predominantly Muslims, took to the streets across Tamil Nadu on Wednesday in a bid to gherao the State Secretariat in Chennai and Collectorates in the districts, demanding adoption of a resolution opposing the CAA and NRC in the Legislative Assembly.
In the State capital, teeming crowds spilled on to the Wallajah Road abutting the arterial Anna Salai, braving an order by the Madras High Court restraining the Federation of Tamil Nadu Islamic and Political Organisations from carrying out an agitation to “lay siege” to the Secretariat where the Assembly is in session.
Mass mobilisation of people on this scale, ignoring the non-grant of permission by the police, in different parts of the southern State had not been witnessed in recent years.
This is quite unlike the jallikattu uprising of January 2017 which happened because the Government did not prevent people from converging at public places.