Students suffer hours of agony in human chain
Written by Writer on Saturday, October 25th, 2008
Students suffer hours of agony in human chain
25 Oct 2008, B Aravind Kumar, TNN
CHENNAI: Hundreds of students from the city were forced to stand for hours in pouring rain on Friday to help political parties form a human chain to express solidarity with the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.
As the clouds burst on Friday afternoon and rains battered the city, the students, both from schools and colleges, were herded along with political activists to thread together the chain that began at the Chennai collectorate and stretched beyond Tambaram.
Most of the students, drenched in the rain and shivering, stood for hours for a cause they had no clue about. Faculty of government colleges like Nandanam Arts College, Queen Mary’s, Quaid-e-Milleth, SIET, YMCA and Anna University were among those who had directed their students to step out and form the chain at 2.30 pm at various stretches along the arterial Anna Salai. The skies opened up by 3 pm. But the students, heeding their teachers’ instructions, braved the downpour and waited, hoping the clouds would pass.
But the rain did not stop and chief minister M Karunanidhi, the patron of Friday’s demonstration of solidarity, came only by about 5 pm. Till then, the students stood in their places, drenched to their bones and shivering.
“We have a model exam tomorrow. I am not sure how we are going to take the exam,” said a student of Nandanam Arts College. No student was allowed to leave as the teachers stood behind with umbrellas. The instructions were clear: the students would have to wait till the CM had passed by.
Nervous teachers refused to let the students even stand in the shade: they didn’t want the students to be missing when the chief minister passed by. Higher education minister K Ponmudy himself stood completely drenched near Quaid-e-Milleth Government Arts College, waiting for his leader.
“We have joined the chain in protest against killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka. But we did not expect to stand under the rain so long,” said a student from Queen Mary’s College. All of them, however, were unanimous that they were compelled to come by college authorities.
Besides partymen and students, the other group that turned out in good numbers was the film industry. Showing solidarity with Lankan Tamils, members of various film associations took position along the stretch from T Nagar to Nandanam.
Finally, around 5 pm, chief minister Karunanidhi passed through, waving from his car bringing down the curtains on an evening of misery for the city’s students. Later in the evening, photographs released by the government showed wet and bedraggled students lining up along roads to form the human chain.
