Chennai: Beleaguered TTV Dhinakaran and his jailed aunt V. K. Sasikala are firing canons at the BJP from the shoulder of Namadhu MGR, which is supposed to be the official organ of the AIADMK but is owned by the Sasikala family. The paper slammed the BJP leadership accusing it of splitting the AIADMK into three factions and causing political instability in several states.
Also, the paper has been blacking out all news relating to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his government ever since he presided over the party meeting on Thursday, where the all-important resolution declaring that Dhinakaran’s appointment as deputy general secretary by Sasikala in her capacity as ‘acting’ general secretary was against the AIADMK constitution, and is invalid. The CM’s Delhi trip went unnoticed by both Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV.
In a hard-hitting special article titled Kaavi adi, Kazhagaththai azhi (saffron strike destroys party) in its Saturday edition, Namadhu MGR accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, albeit without naming him, of sullying the 70-year-old political culture of India by “massacring democracy and glorifying the daylight robbery indulged in by dictatorship”. The article also has a provocative cartoon that shows an RSS man painting India in saffron colour.
“It’s these great persons who had bragged they would provide jobs for 2.5 crore youths per year, give Rs 15 lakh to every citizen, bring down the fuel prices by half and cap the US dollar to Rs 35”, said the article. While none of the promises was delivered, it said ‘they’ had indulged in serious violations of decent democracy in Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Puducherry, besides “ruining the Congress in Goa, splitting Lalu and Nitish to grab power by the backdoor in Bihar and crush the administrative authority of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi”.
While the rival DMK has Murasoli as its vibrant mouthpiece— the opposition party is now celebrating the paper’s 75th anniversary in grand manner and at least two popular TV channels backing it to the hilt, the ruling AIADMK appears to have been deserted by both its ‘official’media platforms- Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV. The Sasikala family owning them is upset over Edappadi yielding to rival O. Panneerselvam faction’s demand that the ‘family’ should be ejected from the party.
Consequently, both the paper and the TV channel have been blacking out all news relating to the Edappadi government the last couple of days.
More importantly, they are giving huge coverage to Dhinakaran’s statements and the preparations for his public meetings and the proposed tour starting with a rally at Melur in Madurai on Monday.
“Madurai has been the centre for all major developments in our party, including the rally where MGR launched the party and the public meeting where he indicated Amma (Jayalalithaa) as his political heir. TTV’s rally on Monday too will prove to be a turning point”, raved a party cadre on the Jaya TV bulletin focusing on TTV’s political calendar.
The channel also gave liberal coverage to the cadre praising Sasikala as thyaga-thalaivi (leader who has made great sacrifices) and BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy telling reporters at the airport that she remains the party chief and that the Election Commission had erred in freezing the two-leaves symbol of the party, which should have remained with her even after the OPS split.
