18.3.13

Anti - Lanka stir flares up


The anti-Lanka protests are spiralling out of control across Tamil Nadu with more apolitical youth and students coming out on the streets.
It is believed to be the largest ever students’ upsurge for the Tamil cause from seemingly apolitical campuses like IIT, Presidency and Loyola. It is also touted as the second largest mass protest of students after anti-Hindi agitation. In Chennai, students of the Loyola College and Nandanam Art College continued their campaigns on Sunday conducting meetings and campaigning among friends. Police took 14 law college students into custody during their protest at the Marina Beach.
The peaceful protests against alleged genocide in Sri Lanka gained momentum with more than 400 students from IIT-Madras joining in what is developing into a movement across colleges in the state. Protesters of IIT-Madras comprise students from different states and have also called for similar protests from other IITs in the country.
In IIT-Madras, nearly 70 students took part in a daylong hunger strike on Sunday. Response from the student’s community has surprised the student leaders as nearly 500 students and senior faculty participated in the hunger strike, a panel discussion and peace march late on Sunday evening holding placards and banners written in different Indian languages.
L S Ganesh, dean of students of IIT, said the students of IIT have showed their way of protest and will continue to maintain that space for opinions in a peaceful way.
“The photos of Prabhakaran’s son that appeared through internet have disturbed us. There is huge response from students due to this,” said Nikhil Ramakrishnan, a protesting student at Presidency College.

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