The recent incident in Tamil Nadu, where a 12th-standard student was brutally attacked for criticizing the poor condition of a road, highlights a disturbing trend of intolerance within the DMK ruling establishment. The attack on 17-year-old Santhosh Kumar by a DMK cadre underscores the dangerous extent to which power has corrupted those in office, leading to a culture where even minor dissent is met with violence.
As per the details, Santhosh Kumar, the son of Veerasamy from Bootheri near Tindivanam, in Villupuram district, was riding his two-wheeler when he fell due to the poor condition of the road. Frustrated and angry after his fall, he openly criticized the deplorable state of the road and the officials responsible for its maintenance, directing his anger toward the ruling DMK government. His comments, a rightful expression of citizen frustration, were met not with concern or action from the authorities, but with brutal violence.
Abi, a local shop owner and DMK cadre, overheard Santhosh’s remarks. Enraged, he allegedly grabbed a knife from his shop and launched a vicious attack on the young boy. In a shocking display of mob mentality, four others who were with Abi joined in the assault. A bystander, Pushparaj, who tried to intervene and stop the violence, was also attacked by the group. The attackers fled the scene, leaving Santhosh severely injured just 30 meters from a police station, underscoring the brazenness with which they acted.
Santhosh was rushed by nearby residents to the Tindivanam Government Hospital and later transferred to Puducherry’s JIPMER Hospital due to the severity of his injuries. The incident has sparked widespread outrage on social media, with many citizens condemning the attack and demanding strict punishment for the DMK functionary and his accomplices.
BJP Tamil Nadu chief, Annamalai severely condemned the DMK government over the brutal attack on the youngster. He said in a tweet in Tamil on his X platform, “Due to the corrupt administration of the DMK government, a student who fell from the vehicle while traveling on a broken road and criticised the DMK, the DMK men tried to kill him. The fact that the DMK is so infatuated with power that they will even kill a school student if they criticise the DMK government’s administrative failure is highly condemnable.”
https://x.com/annamalai_k/status/1823638416028000583
He said, “This shocking event has added to the growing concerns over law and order in the state and raised questions about the accountability of political officials in power.“Does the Chief Minister realise that raising such anti-social elements in the name of DMK cadres is causing harm to society? I urge the Chief Minister to realise that the perpetrators of the murderous attack on the school student are a threat to society and take strict action against them.”
The attack shows that “under the Dravidian Model government, the public has no rights to voice the condition of roads and other infrastructural facilities, critics say, adding, “It is a fact the condition of roads, which are being re-laid every year after monsoon, speaks volume and needs improvement. In some places day after relaying, the roads came up like mud cakes and became battered again. The contractors, when questioned, say, “We have to give commission to politicians, officers, and local party cadres, which works out nearly 40 percent, leave alone our margin for profit. So the road won’t last for a drizzle. Party functionaries say “We have to make money, and if good quality roads are laid, where will we cut money?””.
The government should try to take criticism of poor quality of roads in the right spirit and rectify it to win their hearts. Allowing its party functionaries to take law and order into their hands would not augur well for a democracy. Every citizen has the right to criticise and question the government that they had elected by voting in the election, and it should be kept in mind that it is neither beyond criticism nor the quality of roads or its schemes is an appreciable one.”.
This horrifying event is not just an isolated act of violence; it is indicative of a broader, more troubling trend where those in power are increasingly unable to tolerate criticism. When a young student’s life is jeopardized for simply voicing frustration over basic public services, it raises serious questions about the state of our democracy.
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