Permission was denied from 2003 to 2016

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will hold a route march in Chennai for the second consecutive year on January 28. The organisation had been refused permission to hold a march for 13 years till 2017.

The 3.5-4 km ‘path sanchalan’ will begin from Mannivakkam, near Vandalur and is expected to be attended by over 3,000 volunteers from the Greater Chennai area. The march, to commemorate Sister Nivedita's 150th birth anniversary, will also be held simultaneously in five other locations: Gobichettipalayam, Krishnagiri, Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Tiruvannamalai.

Before the route march on January 29, 2017, outside Egmore’s Rajarathinam Stadium, the RSS had managed to organise a march in 2003 in K.K. Nagar. The Tamil Nadu unit of the RSS usually organises its Vijayadashami march — to observe the organisation's establishment in 1925— in January as it rains in the State in November.

Successive AIADMK and DMK governments denied the march permission till November 2016, when the RSS obtained a favourable order from the Madras High Court. However, the police denied permission, detaining at least 21,000 volunteers across Tamil Nadu.

“We have had no problems with route march permissions in the northeast and Kashmir, and even in communist-ruled Kerala. Tamil Nadu was the sole exception,” said a senior functionary of the RSS’ North Tamil Nadu unit.

Shortly after former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa died in December 2016, the RSS was given permission to hold a march outside Rajarathinam stadium.

“By and large, cooperation has been very good this time. Things are going smoothly,” said the RSS leader about the organisation’s relationship with the police ahead of the march. The RSS decided not to request permission for a venue within the city this year as it found the 1 km route outside Rajarathinam stadium to be constrictive.