The police’s decision to cordon off the Ambedkar Memorial at Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai until the visit of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, to pay tributes on his birth anniversary, on Sunday (April 14, 2024) led to a commotion with Madras High Court former judge D. Hariparanthaman himself expressing displeasure over such police action.
The retired judge had gone to the memorial to attend a self-respect marriage scheduled to take place at 8 am but found the couple, their family members and friends to have not been allowed inside the memorial citing protocol. They had been asked to wait until the Chief Minister pays a visit to the memorial.
When the former judge explained that the self-respect marriage would get over in hardly 10 minutes, the police agreed to allow him and the couple alone inside the memorial but not anyone else. However, he wondered how could such a restriction be imposed on family members and friends.
