DMK MLAs disrupt TN House proceeding over Ram Rajya Rath Yatra, evicted

The Tamil Nadu Assembly today saw tumultuous scenes as the main opposition party, the DMK, protested against the entry of Vishwa Hindu Parishad's 'Ram Rajya Rath Yatra' to the state and its MLAs were evicted from the House en masse for disrupting its proceedings.

However, Chief Minister K Palniswami accused the DMK of trying to gain political mileage over the issue.

DMK legislators raised slogans against the AIADMK government and were evicted from the Assembly en masse after they did not heed to repeated appeals of Speaker P Dhanapal to cooperate in running the House.

Soon after Question Hour, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly M K Stalin opposed the entry of the yatra into the state. His speech on the issue was later expunged by the speaker.

In a reply, the chief minister said the yatra did not face any opposition in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala through which it had passed before entering Tamil Nadu, and it would proceed to Thiruvananthapuram on March 23.

Asserting that he did not see any problem in this respect, Palniswami said, "You and some other political party leaders are trying to gain political mileage out of it and that is quite visible. It is not correct to give a political colour to the issue."
Referring to opposition to the yatra from quarters who had submitted petitions to the police urging that permission not be given for the yatra, he said, "All religions have equal rights. Nobody can ban it. This is a democratic country and no religion can be discriminated."