India: Noted social activist Traffic Ramaswamy passes away

Chennai - Ramaswamy was known for single-handedly taking on powerful politicians.

Taking on powerful political leaders by pulling down their posters, blocking traffic, sneering at bigwigs – all these were part of the daily life for K.R. Ramaswamy, better known by his moniker Traffic Ramaswamy, for well over half a century.

Ramaswamy, who was 86, suffered a massive cardiac arrest and died in a Chennai hospital on Tuesday night. But most of his life he had virtually, single-handedly taken on powerful politicians across the spectrum and faced their ire. He was also a judicial activist, who had filed over 600 public interest litigation (PIL) cases mostly relating to illegal hoardings and structures in Chennai.

And the activist had no political bias: whether it was Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Ramadoss, Vijayakanth…no political leader was spared, as Ramaswamy would go about tearing their posters, put up illegally by supporters, across Chennai.