Even though the training of armed forces, including from Sri Lanka, happens routinely at different places, what caused distress is the airforce officers' presence here when emotions are running high here, particularly after the self-immolation by 26-year-old DTP operator Muthukumaran.
Last year too, the lack of discretion underlined the visit of Sri Lankan armymen to Coimbatore for training. Then too political parties had made a noise and the officers were shunted off to their country.
Once a councillor, now a chain snatcher
Most people think that politicians are venal, corrupt and have a thirst for power.Instances such as the BJP President Bangaru Lakshman taking money and stashing it in a drawer and, more recently, of the BJP MLA from Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka taking a bribe only serve to buttress this image. But even the police was stunned whena chain snatcher they nabbed this week turned out to be a former councillor ERanganathan who represented Rathinamangalkam area for four years.
Police say that a drunk Ranganathan was waiting on the platform at Tambaram police station when he spotted 27-year-old Priya about to board a train and grabbed her gold chain. When she shouted for help, Ranganathan, dropped the chain and ran only to be wrestled to the ground. In a classic case of "finders keepers, losers weepers", the chain was never found despite an intensive search for several hours. It would only be naïve to think that a gold chain would not be snapped up in a nanosecond on a railway platform.