Tuticorin:
A leader of Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK was sacked from all party posts today after he abused journalists, who were barred today from Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam's meeting with those injured in the Tuticorin violence.
A tweet by Hari Prabhakaran, a senior functionary at the AIADMK's IT wing, was explicit.
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But soon after, he deleted the tweet and issued an apology:
By then it was too late. The party had taken swift action, dropping him from all posts.
Six days after the violence and police firing in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin -- in which 13 protesters demanding closure of the Sterlite copper smelting plant died - Mr Panneerselvam had visited the injured people.
The media, however, was not allowed in. A decision taken after the ruling party faced public embarrassment, when a survivor's mother had taken to task a visiting minister.
The video, where the woman was seen asking Information Minister 'Kadambur' Raju why the government could not permanently shut the Sterlite plant, was widely circulated. The woman's son was undergoing treatment and in the video she was even seen asking the minister what he would have done if his son had sustained such an injury.
The protests demanding the closure of the copper plant over pollution concerns in Tuticorin have been going on for over three months, but violence erupted on Tuesday, with agitators fighting pitched battles with police, who opened fire.