‘Anti-social elements hijacked cause’

The group of protesters, largely comprising school students, say that it was notorious elements from outside who changed the dynamics of the protest. “I have been with the team of protesters for the past seven days. A group of core protesters have been peacefully protesting at the Marina Beach, opposite Vivekananda Memorial, day and night since the protest started. Everything went peacefully till Monday morning,” says Fathima Rofina, a protester. She further adds, “We, the core group of protesters, mostly students, stayed back on Sunday night as they wanted to get a copy of the Ordinance. We wanted to go through the entire text, under the guidance of an expert and leave after seeing the protest. Well, that was the idea.”

According to the students present there, while they sat opposite the landmark, they were told that some troublemakers started pelting stones at the police. 

“The police then came to us and politely asked us to leave as violence was likely to erupt. They asked the women and children to leave. However, some of the men decided to stay and so the women accompanying them also stayed back. When there was resistance between the police and the those present on the beach, we left,” she says. 

Another protester, Prakash, a college student, says, “We suspect these anti-social elements started coming in from day four onwards. That is when the nasty slogans started. It included unparliamentary language. The police had already warned everyone not to use such language. The violence first began on the road and not where the protests happened on the beach. There was commotion and some of them refused to move and shifted to the beach and the crowd scattered. None of the students and protesters who spent the night there participated in the violence.” 

Bharath Subramani, a member of a popular Facebook Page that has been giving live updates, says, “It is sad to see the revolution being turned into a riot. It seemed that the first four days was the best thing that can ever happen but things changed. Through our Facebook page, we reached out to youngsters asking them to be wary of this external component. We had set an example and now things have changed completely.”