Tamil Nadu chief minister Vijay met Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) professor Kalaiyarasan today, in what being dubbed as damage control after the economist was picked up by plain-clothes policemen in the early hours yesterday morning.
However, no official photographs of the meeting had been released at the time of writing.
Sources said the chief minister had invited the professor for the meeting.
The incident has triggered criticism from opposition parties and even the CPM, which extends outside support to the ruling TVK government, putting the spotlight on the police force. He alleged that his phone was taken away and that he was neither shown any complaint nor provided information about the grounds for the action. DMK president MK Stalin also condemned the incident and demanded an apology from the chief minister and the police chief.
Because he had highlighted what he described as an unprecedented rise in prices under the TVK government, stalin alleged that Kalaiyarasan was targeted.
The personnel took him in a taxi and questioned him for more than two hours, according to the professor’s account. In a pointed political remark, Stalin said he had not imagined that an academic would be arrested because the ruling party was “allergic to knowledge”.
