Supporters of the DMK in Tamil Nadu, which recently swept to power in the Assembly elections, were caught on camera, vandalising the premises of an Amma Unavagam (Amma canteen) in Chennai. According a series of tweets put out by the AIADMK, the incident took place in the city's JJ Nagar area on Tuesday.
The video shows one man tearing a name plate outside the canteen and kicking it, while another man can be seen walking out with a torn poster and dumping it outside the building. Another man can be seen walking around with a DMK scarf around his neck even as several people looked on. The miscreants had also overturned furniture and damaged groceries of the outlet.
Photos of the incident also showed that police personnel had visited the spot and taken note of the incident.
In a series of tweets, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) chief TTV Dinakaran condemned the ransacking of the canteen and said that it "hurts that the DMK behaves this way against a restaurant that benefits the poor and common people, just because it is named after Amma."
"Even before swearing in, if they are behaving like this, I tremble to think of the future," he said, adding that "This incident is an example that is a testament to the fact that the DMK will never change."
Following the incident, newly elected Saidapet DMK MLA and former Chennai Mayor Subramanian MA took to Twitter and said that DMK chief Stalin had ordered legal action against the miscreants who vandalised the outlet and also ordered that they be expelled from the party.
Launched in 2013 by then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the flagship scheme was one of the first of its kind launched in India, to provide subsidised food for the poor. It employs women from self-help groups (SHGs).
Last year, when the pandemic first broke out, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) even announced that the food would be given out for free, as a result of the economic distress accompanying the lockdown.
(This story was first published by The News Minute and has been republished here with permission.)
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