Congress MP and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief Dr K Jayakumar on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Central government for not taking back the citizenship law.
"By not taking back the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the Central government is loading their guns and rifles and directing the police to kill the people," he said.
Thousands of people marched on the streets with DMK president MK Stalin and other opposition party leaders here to protest against the CAA earlier in the day.
A host of senior leaders of opposition parties including Congress, CPI, CPM, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) participated in the rally to register their protest against the new law.
Dr Jayakumar told : "When the government is continuously saying that they will not take back this amendment, then this means they are loading their guns and rifles."
"They are asking the police to fill their barrel with bullets to kill the people because this agitation of the people will not stop unless they take the CAA back," he added.
He further said the DMK along with other parties today orgsed a massive protest march and rally, which is a clear indication that the people of India have 'rejected' the amendment made by the 'Modi-Shah regime' against the interest of the people.
"The government should bring a law for the safety of the nation, economic development, maintain peace in the country. This particular law is anti-peace, to divide the people, to set one community against the other and destroy the prevailing peace in the country," said Jayakumar.
MH Jawahirulla, MMK president, told that the DMK president at the end of the rally announced that this is not the end of the protest, and the party will hold another meeting in which other agitations will be planned.
On Sunday night, the Madras High Court had dismissed the public interest litigation seeking to stall the agitation.
A bench of S Vaidyanathan and PT Asha, while allowing the rally, directed the DMK to ensure that no hardship was caused to the general public and no public properties are damaged in the protest.
"We were happy to conduct this rally in a peaceful way. The police had said that there may be some agitation. In fact, our leader has also mentioned that the police also participated in this rally along with the crowd," said Kalthi Veerasamy, DMK MP.
Apart from political leaders and activists, a huge number of farmers and traders also joined the rally.
Police had made elaborate security arrangements, deploying over 5,000 cops, riot control vehicles to respond to any situation.
( With inputs from ANI )