The DMK and its henchmen under the guise of journalists have gone about stifling voices that had been critical of them and exposed their nexus. With the recent developments, it has only gone on to prove the already prevailing allegations.
Madan Ravichandran gagged
Reports have emerged that Udhayanidhi Stalin has filed a defamation suit against the Madan Ravichandran, the News Head of Channel Vision. Madan Ravichandran through his Youtube channel has been exposing the nexus between the DK, DMK, Communist group and the mainstream media through his Madan Diary series.
On July 12, Thiruporur DMK MLA Idhayavarman was caught for brandishing a gun in broad day light and firing multiple rounds in the middle of a road in which one of the bullet hit a passer-by. He had fired at the car of a real estate agent Kumar while travelling along the East Coast Road owing to a property dispute.
Madan had released a video in which he traced the back story of DMK MLA Idhayavarman’s gun to an illegal deer hunting mafia. In the video, a man whose identity was withheld for security reasons provided an account of how the DMK MLA hunted deers to be served to DMK Youth Wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin.
However, Udhayanidhi has filed a defamation suit against the News Head of Channel Vision Madan Ravichandran at the Saidapet Court saying that the video posted had no basis and was an attempt to tarnish his reputation and his family.
Maridhas intimidated
In another case, popular vlogger Maridhas who exposed the close links between News 18 Tamil Nadu, DMK and the rabid Youtube channel Karuppar Koottam has been sued by News 18 Tamil Nadu Senior Editor Gunasekaran for defamation. Gunasekaran is the son-in-law of Kali Poongundran (Kaliamurthy Naidu), the Deputy President of Dravida Kazhagam (DK).
Maridhas had traced the links of News 18 Tamil Nadu journalists to an organization called Centre of Media Persons for Change (CMPC) (www.cmpc.in) which seems to be an extension of communists, DK groups. Maridhas in his video had mentioned that some of the persons associated with CMPC and content writers in news channels like News 18, Puthiyathalaimurai trace their history to One Mind Generation Research whose directors are Mohan Karthik, and Anbil Poyyamozhi Mahesh. Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi (son of former MLA and close confidante of MK Stalin Anbil Poyyamozhi), Mohan Karthik (son of current Anna Nagar MLA M.K. Mohan of DMK).
Apart from Gunasekaran, Maridhas also exposed connections between Haseef Mohamed, Senior Anchor at News 18 Tamil Nadu and Karuppar Koottam, the Youtube channel that had put vile and abusive videos against Hindus and Hindu Gods.
Through his video, he has also urged everyone to send a mail to the Network 18 group to take action against Gunasekaran and Hasef Mohamed for their actions.
A few days later, Maridhas had claimed that he had received a mail from the News 18 group acknowledging his mail. However, this email was refuted by Vinaya Sarawagi, Editor at News 18, as fake. But Maridhas has stood by his allegations. It is being suspected that a protonmail could have been used by a user to create the fake mail.
Meanwhile, reports started emerging that the News 18 group had curtailed the powers of Gunasekaran and had shown the doors to Haseef.
In light of this, Gunasekaran and his channel filed a civil defamation suit of 1.5 crores along with a criminal suit against Maridhas at the Madras High Court. Justice C.V. Karthikeyan has instructed Maridhas to stop putting videos that ‘defames’ News 18 and take down the videos that he had earlier posted against the channel and its journalists.
Kishore K Swamy arrested
Another fiery voice who roasts the DK, DMK and Communist groups left, right and centre is Kishore K Swamy who is known for his candid and outspoken nature. He also delivers punches below the belt to drive home his point. He was arrested by the police on July 29 based on a complaint from a union called Madras Union of Journalists for allegedly making derogatory comments on women journalists. Kishore K Swamy had written in his social media accounts that his parents, both of them septuagenarians, were harassed by the police. He was later released the same night.
Such attempts to intimidate and stifle voices is not new for the DMK. However, these incidents add credibility and makes conspicuous the allegations leveled against the Tamil Nadu mainstream media – that there exists an ideological and political hegemony in the media space and that they work towards creating a narrative that is favourable to one party.