Tuticorin anti-Sterlite protest (Representative Imgae: PTI)

Tamil Nadu Information and Publicity Minister ‘Kadambur’ Raju’s visit to a Tuticorin hospital, around 600 km from capital city of Chennai, on Sunday to meet those injured in the anti-Sterlite protests last week sparked immense buzz on social media. This after a video of him being confronted by a mother of an injured victim surfaced on social media, and has gone viral since.

As the minister entered the ward, along with District Collector Sandip Nanduri and came near a man’s bed – his mother pointed at her son’s wounded head and asked the minister, what he would have done if it was his son who sustained such injuries. She also demanded to know why the government cannot order a permanent closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite copper factory.

The minister tried to calm her down saying that he is also from the same district of Tuticorin, and can understand her emotions and feelings. The son who sustained a head injury then intervenes, asking whether the government ready to shut down the factory. “We will not allow the factory to run,” he is seen saying in the video.

तमिलनाडु के मंत्री राजू को जनता ने लिया आड़े हाथ एक आदमी ने सीधा सीधा पूछ लिया कितने मिले थे हम पर गोलियां चलाने के स्टार लाइट की ओर से ??

Kadambur Raju

Woman: If your son is trashed like this will you be ok with it? You stood silent when police was firing at us#SterliteProtest pic.twitter.com/dqNj5XlBuG — Dr Nehal Vaidya (@DrNehalVaidya) May 27, 2018

Locals of Tuticorin have been agitating for over 3 months now demanding the closure of the Vedanta group’s copper plant over pollution issue. Last week the situation went out of hand as the police opened fire on the protestors, killing 13 people. The state government has also set up an enquiry commission headed by Aruna Jagadeesan, a retired judge of the Madras high court to look into the matter.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has also taken suo motu cognisance of the violence and issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police, calling for a detailed report in two weeks