Karaikkal women briefly ‘gheraoed’ Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday demanding release of Tamil fishermen from Sri Lankan prisons.

The women told the Minister, who had successfully emerged stronger from health issues which plagued her early last year, that fishermen strayed into Lankan terrirory not willingly and on their own but were forced to do so by the fury of ‘Cyclone Ockhi’ early last month after the cyclone hit the Kanniyakumari and Kerala coasts.

Sushma was at Karaikkal where she took part at a function held at the Karaikkal Head Post Office to inaugurate a Passport Facilitation Centre. “India ranks third in the globe in providing passport services,” Sushma told her audiences. “Efforts are being made to ensure that nobody needs to travel beyond 50 kms to reach Passport Offices throughout the country,” she assured.

Puducherry chief-minister Narayana Swamy lauded Sushma’s Hindi diction and said that during his tenure as an M.P., he got to learn lots of Hindi words by simply hearing her speak in Parliament. He termed Sushma as ‘Puratchithalaivi’. Later, when Sushma exited the venue, women in large numbers gheraoed her by security guards arrived in no time to wriggle the Minister out of the crowd.

It remains to be seen how the Congress reacts to one of its chief-ministers describing a Union Minister (BJP leader) as ‘Puratchithalaivi’, the title one has come to associate only with the late Jayalalithaa so far!