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How A Kashmiri Pandit Has Rattled Dravidiawood With Dhurandhar

By
The Commune
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For years, Tamil cinema’s ecosystem has operated within a tight ideological comfort zone. Narratives, heroes, villains, even humour – all carefully orbiting a familiar political gravity. Step outside that line, and the system pushes back.

And then comes Dhurandhar.

Not with noise. Not with endorsements. But with something far more disruptive – audience validation.

From cities to interior towns across Tamil Nadu, theatres have reported packed houses and sold-out shows. Not just in Chennai, but in Tier 2 and 3 towns – far from the echo chambers of elite discourse. The message is unmistakable: the audience is not where the ecosystem thinks it is.

The sold-out shows in Tirunelveli and Pollachi are not a footnote. They are a sentence.

For years, a specific ecosystem has operated a quiet but ruthless cultural veto over Tamil screens. Films are filtered through an unspoken test: does this cinema respect the Dravidian framework? Does it mock “Sanghi” characters? Does it position Brahmins as villains? Does it signal the right caste loyalties? Films that pass get industry promotion, Tamil media celebration, and social media amplification by thousands of blue-tick handles. Films that fail the test get quietly strangled – limited screens, hostile reviews, coordinated trolling of the cast.

And then Aditya Dhar arrived.

He is not from Tamil Nadu. He is not from the Dravidianist or leftist ecosystem, either. He is a Kashmiri Pandit who made Uri: The Surgical Strike from the scar of a genocide his community faced that the leftist ecosystem, including the Dravidian progressives, spent years refusing to acknowledge. He carries no caste stamp, no political godfather in TN, no pre-clearance from the ecosystem’s gatekeepers. He simply made a film about India, its soldiers and Indian justice, and trusted audiences to respond.

They did. In numbers that left no room for spin.

In January 2026, Sivakarthikeyan’s Parasakthi – a film that arrived with full ecosystem endorsement, DMK cultural backing, heavy Tamil media push, and the implicit promise of political relevance heavily choked at the box office. The contrast could not be sharper or more instructive. One film was built for approval from the cartel. The other was built for the audience. Tamil audiences, as they always do when the choice is honest, chose the latter.​

What Dhurandhar : The Revenge’s Tamil Nadu performance dismantles is the central myth the Dravidian left has peddled for decades: that the Tamil audience is uniquely insulated from “nationalist sentiment,” that patriotism is a North Indian import, and that any film touching military valour or justice for victims of terrorism is ipso facto “BJP propaganda” and therefore unwatchable below the Vindhyas. The people queuing in Tirunelveli district’s tier-2 multiplexes, buying out shows in a Hindi film they watched in dubbed Tamil, did not consult others before buying their tickets.

Producers across Chennai are watching the numbers very carefully. The arithmetic is brutal: when a non-ecosystem film reportes housefull shows from Tamil Nadu in four days without a single Tamil industry star or a gram of Dravidian cred, the calculation of what Tamil audiences will actually pay for changes permanently. The ecosystem’s power was never cinematic; it was logistical – controlling screens, controlling reviews, controlling the narrative of what is “acceptable Tamil cinema.” That control just took its biggest hit in years.

Aditya Dhar may not yet fully grasp what he has accomplished south of the Vindhyas. He went after a story. He got a cultural earthquake.

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‘Can You Raise Kids With An Actress?’, Says Actor Sivakumar Compares Home Food To Wife And Hotel Food To Actress

By
The Commune
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‘Can You Raise Kids With An Actress?’, Says Actor Sivakumar Compares Home Food To Wife And Hotel Food To Actress

Actor Sivakumar on Wednesday inaugurated a newly opened branch of a restaurant and sweet shop in Anna Nagar, Chennai, and interacted with the media after tasting the food, as reported in News18 Tamil.

Speaking on changing food habits, Sivakumar said, “Today, it is impossible for a person to live without a hotel. When I came to Chennai, hotels were the only thing that saved my body for the first 10 years. At that time, I spent 45 rupees a month and ate for the whole month. Idli was 6 paise and vada was 5 paise. Today, times have changed. Money has lost its value. However, providing quality food is important.”

Responding to a question on whether he preferred home-cooked food or hotel food, he remarked, “Oh, come on! That’s like asking, ‘Do you prefer an actress or your own wife?’” (Laughs). “How could anyone look at an actress the way they look at their wife? Can you really raise children with an actress? Look at the kind of questions this guy is asking!”

He added, “Home-cooked food is the constant, the permanent choice; going to a hotel is just for a change of pace. If you eat at a hotel for all three meals, you’ll go crazy, you’ll end up with loose motions. For instance, if I go to a wedding in Coimbatore today, say we attend a wedding celebration for three days, there are 30,000 people eating there.”

Elaborating further, he said, “You have no idea what ingredients they’re using. If you spend three days eating in Coimbatore, you gain 2 kg in weight. By the fifth day, you’re suffering from loose motions. So, hotel food isn’t a permanent solution. That’s why, for me, it’s always home, wife, and children first; hotels come only second.”

On being asked about the secret to his youthful appearance, Sivakumar said, “A 16-year-old boy will remain young. What is this question? Now, when I wake up in the morning, I have eaten a handful of old rice, two glasses of buttermilk, papaya and guava slices. Get at least 7 hours of sleep, eat on time, go for a morning walk. Don’t sleep in an AC room. MGR proved to the world that an actor can travel. There is no chance of another actor being born like him.”

Reflecting on cinema and politics, he added, “Before Reynolds Reagan, MGR ruled the country. MGR had no heirs, no children. There is no chance of another being born like Sivaji, the greatest actor in the world. But he lost in politics. What I am saying is, no one has it all. Keep working hard, be happy with what God gives you and don’t compare yourself with anyone.”

When asked about the possibility of entering politics, Sivakumar responded on a lighter note, “I thought of becoming the Chief Minister during Kamaraj’s time, but I missed that opportunity.”

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DMK Ecosystem Targets Stand-Up Comic Manoj Prabhakar After His Jokes On Udhayanidhi Stalin Go Viral, ‘Melting Point’ Saravanan Suffers Meltdown

By
The Commune
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Stand-up comic Manoj Prabakar has found himself at the centre of an online backlash following clips from his recent political comedy set, with social media reactions spiralling beyond criticism of his material into sharp, often personal attacks invoking caste identities.

The controversy began after excerpts of Prabakar’s performance, which included jokes targeting political figures such as Udhayanidhi Stalin, circulated widely online. While some viewers praised his willingness to take on multiple political figures, a section of users said the jokes did not land and criticised the set as unfunny or forced.

In the clipping that is being shared on social media, Manoj Prabakar goes on to roast everyone in power, from Narendra Modi to MK Stalin to Udhayanidhi, and on the smug self‑image of Tamil Nadu itself. He tears into PM Modi’s 12 years in office, compares our gut to a stomach that has eaten only Gujarati food and is desperate even for “Italian Rahul,” and openly jokes about violence against minorities. He calls Tamil Nadu “UP–Bihar with more graduates,” nails our casual racism with the “vadakkan = N‑word” riff, and ridicules Periyar fanatics for stealing credit like Dhoni fanboys. Then he goes straight for the core of Dravidian power: DMK–AIADMK as the same corporate product, DMK as the “Aranmanai” dynasty franchise, and a state where you can become anything “except deputy chief minister” because that slot is reserved for the family.

That is the context in which the Udhayanidhi portion lands. Manoj explicitly says he likes DMK’s stated ideology on equality, but then rips into the entitlement of a son whose life was “settled” at tenth standard, whose “capacitor” career is built on constantly “taking charge,” whose GST jokes end with “SGST is going to his pocket,” and whose easiest constituency win is in a place that has voted DMK forever. It isn’t a Sanghi caricature; it’s an insider’s disappointment. He even underlines that he is from a DMK family, that his father is an “honest DMK supporter” who has supported “the entire DMK family tree,” and that he himself leans left, not right.

And yet, when this set hits X, the people baying for his blood are not BJP bhakts but the very Dravidianists he is broadly aligned with. The attack line is revealing: they don’t say, “your politics is wrong,” they say, “your audience is Mylapore maamis,” “this is a Nanganallur uncle rant,” “Tamil comics are Brahmin f***ers,” “privileged engineering graduates.” The villain they need is not “comic who bombed,” but “imagined Brahmin ecosystem” that supposedly owns him.

In other words, if Manoj is going after the ecosystem; the DMK ecosystem responds or rather bullies him by going after Brahmins too.

Anyway, setting that aside for a moment. Let us also take a look at the remarks made to bully Prabakar for attacking the DMK.

DMK’s official spokesperson, who is known by the moniker ‘Melting Point’ Saravanan too targeted him for roasting Udhayanidhi Stalin.

The set itself literally anticipates this: Manoj earlier complains that extreme left‑wing commenters keep calling Chennai comics “elite” and even branded him Brahmin despite him never mentioning his caste, and he jokes that if they want that tag so badly, they can go attack comics who have actually built their act around caste identity. He spells out that he is a left-winger himself, supposedly from a family of DMK supporters/Periyar admirers and still gets treated as suspect. The live‑show audience laughs; Dravidianist social media then proceeds to prove his point in real time.

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Coimbatore: Islamists’ Reportedly Attempt To Bury Dead Body On Temple Access Path, Police Reportedly Attacked During Intervention

By
The Commune
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Islamists' Burial Attempt On Temple Access Path Foiled, Police Attacked By Islamists During Intervention

Tensions were reported from Kalampalayam village near Karamadai in Coimbatore district following an alleged attempt to carry out a burial on a pathway reportedly leading to a Hindu temple, prompting police intervention and protests at the site.

As reported in The Hindu, the incident occurred when family members and local residents attempted to bury a Muslim individual at a site described as a burial ground near the Ashurkhana Masjid. Police and Revenue officials intervened at the spot, following which members of the mosque committee were detained. This reportedly triggered protests by relatives of the deceased and members of the Muslim community, who demanded that the final rites be allowed without interference.

According to Hindu Munnani, the incident occurred on a pathway in Velayuthapuram that has been used by local Hindus for over 150 years to access the Angalamman temple. It is alleged that the land in question is government poramboke land and alleged that there had been earlier attempts to encroach upon it in the name of Waqf, which it said had been resisted.

Hindu Munnani further alleged that on 18 March 2026, the Islamist group brought the body of a person who was not connected to the village and attempted to carry out a burial on the pathway. The organisation alleged that the move was intended to establish control over the land and disrupt access to the temple. It also alleged that a pit had been dug at the site as part of the attempt.

A video shared on social media by Hindu Munnani shows police personnel, including senior officers, present at the spot and intervening to prevent the burial. According to the Hindu Munnani, tensions escalated when police intervened, and there were allegations that officers were attacked during the process. It was further stated that a woman police constable sustained injuries.

Hindu Munnani stated that protests were held by its members and local residents for several hours, following which the burial was halted.

The Kalampalayam area has witnessed similar tensions in the past over land access issues. In November 2023, residents had approached the district administration seeking access to a temple through land claimed by the Waqf Board, with reports at the time noting minor skirmishes and verbal disputes between groups over several months.

Further tensions were reported in June 2024 in the Karamadai–Mettupalayam belt when officials intervened to halt a burial on land under dispute, following complaints raised with revenue authorities.

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“Crossed The Limits”: Delhi High Court Orders Leftist Rag Newslaundry To Take Down Offensive Remarks On Aaj Tak, India Today

By
The Commune
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“Crossed The Limits”: Delhi High Court Orders Leftist Rag Newslaundry To Take Down Offensive Remarks On Aaj Tak, India Today

The Delhi High Court on Friday, 20 March 2026, directed digital media platform Newslaundry to remove certain content that was found to be insulting and damaging to TV Today Network and its channels, Aaj Tak and India Today, while hearing cross appeals in an ongoing dispute involving allegations of defamation, disparagement, and copyright infringement, as reported in Law Chakra.

A Division Bench comprising Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla observed that portions of the language used by Newslaundry crossed the limits of fair criticism and were prima facie offensive.

The Court specifically objected to expressions such as “shit”, “shit show”, “high on weed or opium” and “your punctuation is as bad as your journalism” and ordered that these remarks be removed from all online platforms, including Newslaundry’s website and social media handles.

While delivering its order, the Bench concurred with the earlier findings of the single-judge Bench and stated, “We are in agreement with the learned single judge’s finding that a prima facie case of commercial disparagement has been made out. The statements identified in the impugned order [of the single judge] are clearly without any independent standard and are biased and therefore constituted disparagement under the applicable legal principles.”

The Court further held that allowing such content to remain accessible would cause serious and irreparable harm to the reputation of TV Today. It noted, “Such harm cannot be compensated by monetary relief or any other relief. Therefore, interim protection is warranted… Any refusal of interim protection at this stage will cause great prejudice to the plaintiff [TV Today].”

Based on these findings, the Bench partly allowed TV Today’s appeal and directed immediate removal of the objectionable content.

The dispute dates back to October 2021, when TV Today Network initiated legal proceedings against Newslaundry, alleging that the platform had published videos and articles containing “false, malicious and derogatory” statements targeting its channels, anchors, and management.

Newslaundry, in its defence, maintained that its content constituted media criticism and satire, arguing that such expression is protected under the right to freedom of speech.

Earlier, on 29 July 2022, a single-judge Bench of the High Court had declined to grant interim relief to TV Today. This led both parties to file appeals before the Division Bench, with TV Today challenging the denial of interim protection and Newslaundry expressing concern that adverse prima facie observations could prejudice its case.

During hearings in January 2025, the Division Bench had also taken note of the use of the word “shit” by Newslaundry journalist Manisha Pande in one of the videos and indicated that such language could invite strict observations affecting her professional standing.

However, the Bench subsequently clarified its position, stating, “She may be a good journalist. This may be an aberration also. At that point, that was our gut reaction…You can tell the journalist concerned that she need not be worried about this,”

The case involved multiple counsels, with TV Today represented by advocates Hrishikesh Baruah, Kumar Kshitij, Utkarsh Dwivedi, Pragya Agarwal, Yashaswy Ghosh and Nishtha Sachan. Newslaundry was represented by Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao along with advocates Bani Dikshit and Uddhav Khanna.

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Election Heat Rises, But TVK Chief Joseph Vijay Flies To Mumbai For Atlee’s Wife’s Baby Shower

By
The Commune
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The Election Commission of India has formally set the clock ticking for the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, announcing that all 234 seats will go to polls on April 23, with counting on May 4. The schedule—Gazette notification on March 30, nominations closing April 6, and scrutiny on April 7—has triggered an all-out political sprint across the state. Parties are mobilising cadres, locking strategies, and fine-tuning narratives for what promises to be a fiercely contested election.

But while serious political players are shifting into campaign overdrive, Vijay, founder of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), appears to be operating on a different wavelength altogether.

At a moment that demands urgency, visibility, and relentless political engagement, Vijay chose to fly to Mumbai—not for a political consultation, not for alliance-building, not even for constituency outreach—but for a celebrity social event: the baby shower of filmmaker Atlee and his wife Priya. He was spotted staying at the luxury Taj Lands End, far removed from the electoral battleground he claims to be preparing for.

The optics are hard to ignore. Tamil Nadu is weeks away from a defining election, yet the man projecting himself as a serious alternative to entrenched political forces is seen prioritising film industry camaraderie over ground-level political work. This is not merely about attending a personal function—it is about timing, judgment, and priorities. Politics, especially in a state as complex and competitive as Tamil Nadu, is not a part-time pursuit that can be slotted between social appearances.

What makes the contrast starker is the behaviour of his own supporters. Even in Mumbai, fans gathered in large numbers, waving TVK flags and chanting slogans anointing him as the next Chief Minister. Their enthusiasm is unquestionable. But enthusiasm without direction, without organisational depth, and without consistent leadership risks becoming noise rather than momentum. A leader who feeds off adulation without matching it with political rigour ultimately does a disservice to that very support base.

TVK has, on paper, made ambitious claims—contesting all 234 seats independently, rejecting alliances, and pitching itself as a principled alternative. But ambition in politics must be backed by discipline, clarity, and relentless groundwork. So far, Vijay’s political trajectory raises uncomfortable questions: where is the sustained engagement with voters? Where is the articulation of policy beyond broad rhetoric? Where is the evidence of a leader willing to immerse himself fully in the grind that electoral politics demands?

Instead, what emerges is a pattern of sporadic appearances punctuated by long silences—and moments like this that reinforce the perception of a lackadaisical, almost casual approach to politics. The transition from cinema to governance is not automatic; it requires shedding the trappings of stardom and embracing the burdens of public life. That transformation, at least for now, appears incomplete.

And unless Vijay demonstrates that politics is more than an occasional engagement—that it is a full-time responsibility—he risks being seen not as a serious contender, but as a star still unwilling to step off the stage and into the arena where it truly matters.

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Khadima: A Mother’s Pain And The Brutal Reality Of The Kafala System

By
The Commune
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Janaki is a khadima, a domestic worker from South India employed in the Persian Gulf. She is ensnared in the kafala system, under which a kafeel, or sponsor, exercises near-total control over a worker’s freedom. For three long years, Janaki endured physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her sponsor. Before attempting to escape, a compassionate social activist helped her make one final video call to her young son, physically disabled and waiting for her in their distant village home.

The image of that call becomes the emotional axis of the narrative: a mother suspended between fear and hope, between captivity and reunion. Her ordeal is powerfully portrayed in the short film Khadima, directed by the young debut filmmaker Govind K. Saji.

The film, which has received multiple awards and recognitions, exposes the enduring pains of the kafala system, an entrenched labour practice that persists in several Gulf countries despite recent reform efforts.

The kafala system, prevalent in parts of the Middle East, requires foreign workers to be sponsored by an in-country employer. The sponsor assumes legal responsibility for the worker’s job visa, residence permit (iqama), and immigration status. In effect, the worker’s legal existence is tied entirely to the employer. Although defended as an administrative framework, the system is widely described as a form of “modern-day slavery.” The kafeel’s control frequently extends beyond employment into the worker’s mobility, legal standing, and personal autonomy.

Common allegations include labour rights violations, confiscation of passports, restrictions on movement, prohibition on changing employers without permission, withholding or delaying wages, forcing workers into menial or unwanted tasks, working in extreme heat even during midday hours, online trading or “sale” of workers between kafeels and false charges of “absconding” against those who attempt to leave. Workers who flee abusive conditions may face arrest, fines, detention, or deportation. For the helpless foreign worker who is trapped in an unfamiliar place, access to legal remedy is often limited and trade unions in many of these countries remain weak or non-existent.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) took cognizance of the high levels of exploitation faced by domestic workers under the kafala system in Kuwait. In 2009, the issue was formally presented in the Standards Committee of ILO Conference in Geneva by the representative of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. Following sustained international scrutiny, the Government of Kuwait agreed to introduce legislative reforms. The ILO has advocated country-specific legal changes, ratification of relevant conventions, labour rights protections, and pre-departure orientation and training for migrant workers.

When stadium construction began in 2010 for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, reports indicated that thousands of workers employed under the kafala system died in the course of large-scale construction activities. Many workers described their living and working conditions as prison-like. In response to mounting criticism, Qatar initiated reforms in 2016, becoming the first Gulf nation to formally modify elements of the kafala structure. Other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Lebanon have also announced reforms.

Reforms: Limited Impact and Continuing Concerns

In 2025, Saudi Arabia formally declared the abolition of the decades-old kafala framework governing nearly 13 million migrant workers, many from India. However, human rights groups argue that these reforms are uneven, discriminatory in implementation regarding social status, origin and nationality, and fall short of international labour standards. Critics contend that implementation gaps remain wide. While terminology has changed, the core dependency on employer sponsorship remains intact.

Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, and Lebanon continue to retain variants of the kafala system. The United Arab Emirates and Oman have introduced only partial reforms and continue to retain the core sponsorship model. In Lebanon, reform proposals have faced resistance from recruitment agencies, and legislative efforts have stalled in Parliament. Concerns about gaps in the implementation of labour reforms were raised by human rights activists on the eve of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, following reports of serious worker rights violations at the conference sites.

HRW’s World Report, 2026 indicates that the UAE continues to face widespread issues of wage theft, illegal recruitment fees, and passport confiscation, inadequate workplace safety, and a variety of complaints from migrant workers. In several countries, workers who leave employers without permission still risk imprisonment under “absconding” laws, even in cases involving severe abuse. Domestic workers, personal drivers, guards, agricultural labourers, shepherds, and undocumented migrants are frequently excluded from labour protections.

Passport confiscation continues in many Gulf states despite the reforms. Human rights organisations further allege that employers often retain the power to cancel residency permits, block job transfers, or manipulate immigration status, conditions that sustain environments conducive to exploitation. Reports from large warehouses and industrial sites, including multinational facilities, describe wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and retaliatory legal complaints against workers asserting their rights.

Data from 2026 indicates persistent problems in the UAE, including wage violations and safety lapses. Migrant workers who seek legal redress may face fabricated accusations of theft or misconduct.

A System Rooted in Social Custom

The kafala system is deeply embedded in social structures that regularize exploitative practices and abuses, normalize hierarchy and preserve employer dominance. Migrant domestic workers are often viewed not as workers, but as servants. Shifting this cultural mindset may prove more difficult than amending legislation. Reform efforts have begun, but the transformation remains incomplete.

Janaki’s story in the film “Khadima” is not only personal; it is emblematic. Behind each contract lies a human life, suspended between survival and dignity. Until enforcement matches reform, and culture evolves alongside law, the age-old system will continue to cast its long shadow.

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Dravidian Model Data Privacy Scandal: How DMK Is Using ‘Unga Kanava Sollunga’ Scheme To Profile Voters

By
The Commune
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On 17 March 2026, AIADMK MP C. Ve. Shanmugam (CVS) sparked a controversy by mocking CM MK Stalin’s flagship survey scheme – “Unga Kanava Sollunga” (Tell Your Dream) saying at a public event, “I want Nayanthara, will you fulfil?” The remark drew widespread condemnation for being sexist. The backlash consumed Tamil Nadu’s media cycle entirely on March 17–18.

But on 18 March 2026, recently affected by DMK’s cyber goons, Dravidian Stockist ‘writer’ Meena Kandasamy posted a detailed thread arguing that the CVS controversy, while condemnable, had completely eclipsed a far more serious issue: that the Ungal Kanavu Sollunga (UKS) scheme is one of the largest data privacy violations ever carried out by an Indian state government. The following morning, digital rights and fintech policy researcher Srikanth Lakshmanan who had flagged this same issue when the scheme was first announced in January, published a thread demonstrating this was not an isolated lapse but the culmination of a four-year pattern of DMK data extraction and surveillance of Tamil Nadu’s population.

What Is the ‘Unga Kanava Sollunga’ Scheme?

Launched by CM Stalin on 9 January 2026 at Ponneri, Tiruvallur, the scheme was presented as a welfare outreach programme to assess government scheme effectiveness and collect citizens’ “dreams” for future policy. The operational structure:​

  • 1.91 crore households covered across Tamil Nadu
  • 55,000–73,336 SHG (Self Help Group) members deployed as field surveyors — private citizens, not government employees​
  • Each surveyor visited 30 households per day, collected filled forms, and uploaded data via a dedicated mobile app developed by Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA)​
  • Each family received a unique Dream Card with a tracking ID
  • Survey ran from January 9 to February 10, 2026
  • Total taxpayer cost: ₹43.52 crore, of which ₹21 crore was allocated to Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (TNCDW)

What Data Was Collected?

The four-page survey form demanded:​

  • Ration card number, district, taluk, residential address, mobile number
  • Caste category – SC, ST, MBC, DNC, BC, OC
  • Name, age, gender, educational qualification and occupation of every family member
  • Which of 65 government welfare schemes the household benefits from
  • Feedback on scheme delivery effectiveness
  • The family’s top 3 personal aspirations
The Core Allegation: Mass Pre-Election Data Extraction

The substantive allegation, stated by both Meena Kandasamy and Srikanth Lakshmanan — is not merely about data privacy in the abstract. It is specific: ₹43.52 crore of public money was used to build a granular voter profiling database of 1.91 crore Tamil Nadu families, using private SHG volunteers with no statutory data protection obligation, timed precisely to the pre-election mobilisation window ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.

As Srikanth Lakshmanan put it in January 2026, when the scheme was announced: “Household surveys in AP, TS were common. Also had data malpractices of leaking this data to the ruling party. What was also common was incumbent govt was never re-elected. (Naidu, Jagan, BRS). So ₹43 Crore of taxpayer money to leak data to IT Cell?”

The specific structural risk: 55,000 private individuals now hold, on their phones, via the UKS app, the caste identity, ration card numbers, mobile numbers, welfare dependency status, and personal aspirations of nearly 2 crore Tamil Nadu families, with no law governing what they can do with that data after the survey concluded.

Srikanth Lakshmanan’s Thread Exposes A Four-Year Pattern of DMK Data Abuse

What makes the X thread especially significant is that it does not treat UKS as an isolated incident. It documents a systematic and escalating pattern of data extraction under the DMK government since 2021, which the UKS survey is merely the latest and largest expression of. Here is the full documented timeline he presents:​

1. June 2021 – The TNPDS Hack: Zero Accountability
The Tamil Nadu Public Distribution System (TNPDS) database was hacked and defaced. The hacker had access for 15 full days, during which he exfiltrated personal data: UID, ration card number, mobile number at 36 paise per record. The state government issued zero response and no audit was ordered.

​2. August 2021 – Budget Rewards More Data Collection Despite Hack

Rather than funding cybersecurity following the TNPDS hack, the DMK’s first budget increased funding to the State Farmer Database (SFDB) and DeTN (Digital Tamil Nadu); the same surveillance architecture under the guise of “data-driven welfare delivery.” The TNPDS hack was not mentioned once in the budget.

3. 2021 Onwards – SFDB: The ‘State Farmer Database’ as Mass Surveillance Spine

The SFDB is identified by Srikanth as the core surveillance infrastructure that UKS is built upon. He flags that it has been used to collect 360-degree citizen profiles, and that its household data was shared with JPAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) researchers with Tamil Nadu’s population, in his words, being treated as “rats” for Nobel-linked research experimentation, without adequate public consent or data governance.

4. November 2022 – TANGEDCO Aadhaar Linking: Unconstitutional GO, Then Data Loss

The DMK government issued a GO mandating Aadhaar linking to electricity meters which Srikanth calls “grossly unconstitutional.” The implementation was so incompetent that citizens who completed the mandatory linking in December 2022 were asked to do it again in January 2023 because TANGEDCO had lost the data.

5. 2022-2023 – Tamil Nadu Becomes India’s Most Aggressive Aadhaar-Linking State

Through a systematic survey of gazette notifications, Srikanth documented that Tamil Nadu under DMK became more aggressive than any other state in mandatory Aadhaar linking to welfare schemes, education records, electricity, and more. He coined the term #DataSanghi for what he describes as the DMK being “more regressive on data than the BJP central government” while performing progressiveness in its anti-BJP rhetoric.

6. May 2024 – Tamil Nadu Police Data Breach: 800,000+ Records Exposed

A breach by a hacker named “Valerie” exposed over 800,000 Tamil Nadu police records -FIRs, police officer IDs, 54,000+ officer photographs, home addresses. Srikanth wrote to IT Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan demanding an independent audit. Again: zero response.

7. 2024 – Telangana Model Warning Ignored

Srikanth had explicitly warned IT Minister PTR Madurai in February 2024 that Telangana’s similar “360-degree beneficiary database” model had collapsed with fraudsters exploiting it to siphon money from PM-KISAN and Rythu Bandhu schemes. He urged Tamil Nadu to shut SFDB and conduct a third-party audit. No action was taken.

8. September 2025 – Chennai One App Tender Fraud

Srikanth filed a detailed request for an independent audit of the Chennai One app implementation by CUMTA (Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority), alleging tender fraud in vendor selection. No response from TNeGA or the IT Ministry.

9. October 2025 – Zoho/CM Cell Tender Violation

Zoho was found to be hosting the Tamil Nadu government’s CM Helpline content management system in violation of tender requirements – a matter reported by Medianama. Srikanth flagged this as another instance of TNeGA’s structural inability (or unwillingness) to identify and act on vendor fraud.

10. January 2026 — UKS Survey: The Culmination

Against this backdrop of unaddressed hacks, unconstitutional data mandates, ignored warnings, and repeated data losses, the UKS survey was launched using executive orders alone, with no legislative authorisation, and no law governing the privacy of the data collected. As Srikanth notes: “It’s with this baggage, the Unga Kanavu Sollunga lacking legislation required to violate privacy under Puttaswamy was implemented using volunteers through executive orders.”

The Legal Violation At The Heart Of UKS

The Puttaswamy judgment (2017) of the Supreme Court declared privacy a fundamental right. For any state action that involves collection and processing of personal data especially sensitive categories like caste, welfare dependency, and household economic status, there must be a law passed by the legislature authorising it, not merely an executive order.

The UKS survey was authorised by an executive order from the Revenue and Public Administration departments. It was implemented through a mobile app by TNeGA. And the data was collected by 55,000 private SHG members – none of whom are government employees, none of whom are bound by official secrecy provisions, and none of whom face any legal consequence for misusing the data they now hold on their phones.

The Media Failure

The Dravidianist mainstream Tamil media gave DMK a complete free pass on data governance because DMK fluently speaks the language of anti-BJP federalism. Even mainstream media interviewed people like PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan but never touched upon this issue. ​

The CVS controversy is the perfect illustration: a reportedly sexist remark consumed 48 hours of airtime, while ₹43.52 crore spent on what can be called a constitutionally impermissible mass data extraction operation affecting 1.91 crore families went entirely unexamined.

What stands out most in this episode is not just the scale of the ‘Unga Kanava Sollunga’ exercise, but the near-total silence of large sections of the media that have historically been vocal on data privacy concerns.

The silence of The News Minute on the ‘Unga Kanava Sollunga’ exercise is not just conspicuous—it is telling. This is the same platform that once positioned itself as a watchdog on data privacy and electoral integrity, running strong, alarmist coverage when similar allegations emerged elsewhere. But when a state-backed operation in Tamil Nadu involves the collection of granular personal data from nearly two crore families through non-state actors, that outrage seems to evaporate. The standards haven’t just shifted—they appear to have collapsed entirely. What was earlier framed as a grave threat to democracy now struggles to merit even basic scrutiny. At some point, this stops being an editorial choice and starts looking like selective vigilance dressed up as journalism.

The Government’s Own Admissions

The government inadvertently confirmed the data concerns through its own actions. In January 2026, DT Next reported that residents were hesitating to share mobile numbers, ration card details, and caste data with surveyors, and the government had to issue instructions telling field workers not to compel reluctant households. This is an implicit admission that the public did not trust the data collection process and for good reason.​

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh confirmed the full operational structure: 50,000 SHG volunteers fanned out to 1.91 crore homes, pushed four-page forms asking families to declare every welfare benefit and list their top three “dreams,” collected the completed forms days later, and uploaded everything via the app.

Bottom Line

The UKS scheme is not a welfare initiative with a poorly chosen name. It is, on the available evidence, the largest pre-election data extraction operation conducted by any Indian state government in recent memory – collecting the caste identity, economic status, welfare dependency, mobile numbers and personal aspirations of 1.91 crore Tamil Nadu families through private volunteers, with no statutory authorisation, no data protection framework, and no accountability mechanism. It sits atop a four-year documented pattern of DMK data governance failures that include a major PDS hack with zero accountability, unconstitutional Aadhaar mandates, police data breaches, ignored expert warnings, and serial tender violations. The CVS controversy was a distraction. This is the story.

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The Truth Behind DMK’s Viral ‘Japanese-Speaking Students’ Claim

By
The Commune
-

A few days ago, DMK Supporting YouTuber Senthilvel shared a video on his X handle stating, “This video is a creation of our Tamil Kelvi. It has received an overwhelming response, which brings immense happiness. Last week, we captured and released the contributions made by the DMK to Chennai’s development. That too received a massive response from lakhs of people. Now, this video explaining the Dravidian model’s achievements in education and industrial growth has also been widely appreciated. I have been consistently participating in media debates, presenting data and arguments in support of the Dravidian model government being formed again under the leadership of the Hon’ble Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. I also wrote the book “Why Dravidam 2.0? What for?”, which was released by the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. Through the Tamil Kelvi YouTube channel, I continue to upload videos regularly. Through public meetings, seminars, and interviews on YouTube platforms, I am contributing in whatever way I can to ensure that this government returns to power. I will continue to do so with even greater intensity. This is not just another election. It is a great ideological battle. In this battle, Dravidam must win. For that, we must unite.

Stalin should continue.
Tamil Nadu should win.

Thank you 🙏
 T. Senthil Vel”

What Was The Video About?

Senthil Vel’s video constructed this narrative through a fictional short film format:

  • A Japanese car company executive visits a Tamil Nadu government school
  • A North Indian official named “Mukesh Chaudhary” speaks Hindi to the students; they don’t understand
  • A student suddenly greets the Japanese officer in perfect Japanese – “Konnichiwa”
  • The reveal: Tamil Nadu government sent students on an educational tour to Japan, where they learned the language
  • The punchline: CM MK Stalin gets the credit, patriotic music swells

They wanted this to mean: Tamil Nadu students don’t need Hindi because they’re learning Japanese; the Dravidian Model is producing internationally competitive students

Let us now explore the core lies that Senthilvel is making through his propaganda video.

DECEPTION 1: The Japan Trip Was Evidence Of Educational Excellence

The Japan trip did happen. In November 2023, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department took 24 government school students on an educational tour to Japan from November 3-9, accompanied by six teachers and two officers. They visited Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) and the University of Tokyo.

But here is what Senthil Vel deliberately omitted: the students were selected through a competition, not academic merit. Student Selva confirmed on camera: “Through a short film competition, the education department had taken us to Japan.” Student Poorvika from Annavasal Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Pudukkottai, confirmed: “After winning the state level short film competition, I was taken to Japan.”

No, they did not make/direct/produce/write short films – This was an extra-curricular activity award, a state-sponsored incentive trip for winners of a film analysis competition, not a programme for academic achievers, science champions, or mathematically gifted students. The students who went to Japan were not chosen because Tamil Nadu’s government school system had made them internationally competitive. They were chosen because they could analyse cinematography in a competition. These are entirely different things.

DECEPTION 2: Students Learned Japanese From The Trip

Senthil Vel’s video implies that a 10-day trip to Japan was sufficient for government school students to achieve conversational Japanese fluency. The trip lasted November 3-9, 2023, approximately one week. A student saying “Konnichiwa” (the most basic Japanese greeting, equivalent to “hello”) after visiting Japan is presented as proof of language acquisition at a functional level. This is straightforwardly dishonest. This is a scripted dramatisation, not a documentary claim. Children learn far more Japanese by watching Anime these days!

DECEPTION 3: This Proves Tamil Nadu Government Schools Are World-Class

This is the most damaging part of the debunk, and it is backed by hard numbers from two independent national surveys:

Evidence 1 – ASER 2024 (Annual Status of Education Report)

Conducted by Pratham Education Foundation, cited by World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, and Indian Parliament, surveyed 876 villages, 30 districts, 17,000 homes, 29,000 children aged 3–16 in Tamil Nadu in 2024. The Commune has a detailed report on ASER 2024 – Read here.

The findings for Tamil Nadu government schools:

  • Class 3 students: Only 13.2% can read a Class 2-level text. This means 86.8% of Class 3 students cannot read the textbook from the grade they just completed.
  • Class 5 students: Only 35.6% can read a Class 2-level text, meaning 64.4% of Class 5 students cannot read a textbook three grades below their current level.​

For comparison: Bihar, the state DMK supporters routinely cite as a symbol of educational backwardness, had 20.1% of Class 3 students reading at Class 2 level. Uttar Pradesh had 27.9%. Tamil Nadu at 13.2% is below both.

Evidence 2 – State Level Achievement Survey (SLAS), cited in Times of India

This survey of Class 3, 5, and 8 students by District Institutes of Education and Training found:

  • Class 8 students scored an average of 43.3 out of 100 in English and 44.7 out of 100 in Mathematics​
  • A district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Primary School Federation confirmed that many rural government schools operate with only two teachers for the entire school
  • New teacher appointments are made only when student strength crosses 70, meaning a single teacher often handles Classes 1 through 5 simultaneously​
  • The State Vice President of Tamil Nadu Primary School Teachers Federation confirmed that retired-age teachers who should have been relieved 12 years ago are still in service because the government cannot afford fresh appointments
DECEPTION 4: The Hindi-Resistance Framing

Senthil Vel deliberately embedded the Hindi imposition controversy into his narrative – the “Mukesh Chaudhary” character who insults Tamil students for not knowing Hindi, set against a Tamil student who triumphantly speaks Japanese. This is political microtargeting through fiction: it weaponises a genuine and legitimate political grievance (opposition to Hindi imposition) to manufacture emotional support for a false claim about Tamil Nadu’s educational quality.​

The anti-Hindi sentiment is real and has a legitimate political history but using it as an emotional wrapper to hide fabricated claims about government school quality is manipulation, not journalism.

What Is Legitimately Praiseworthy 

We can acknowledge two genuinely positive aspects that Senthil Vel embedded in his propaganda:

The school film festival scheme itself is a good idea. Exposing rural government school students to world cinema and building film literacy and analytical thinking is valuable especially for children who have never had access to OTT platforms or urban cultural exposure. The government deserves credit for this initiative. ​

The Japan trip itself is a good motivational incentive. Taking students who won a competition abroad is an excellent way to encourage participation and reward achievement. It is the misrepresentation of its significance that is the problem, not the trip itself.

The Bigger Story Nobody Has Reported: What Is Kalvi Suttrula?

​The Japan trip is not a stand-alone PR exercise. It is one episode in a formally named, annually expanding, multi-country, multi-crore programme called Kalvi Suttrula (Education Tour), introduced in 2022–23 by School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi.

2022–23 (First batch)

  • Malaysia and Singapore: Inaugural trips under the scheme​

2023–24

  • Japan (November 2023): 24 students, 6 teachers, 2 officers, visited Miraikan museum, University of Tokyo, Japan Tamil Sangam​
  • South Korea: 24 students from the children’s film club; 25 students each from quiz and rainbow clubs also went to South Korea
    ​

2024–25

Singapore (December 2024) – students visited Gardens by the Bay and other sites; Anbil Mahesh personally accompanied and posted updates​

Malaysia (February 2025) – 52 students from grades 6–9 accompanied by 4 teachers and officials, visited Kuala Lumpur for 5 days

 

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  • Germany (May 2025) – 22 students on a week-long tour to Munich under Kalvi Suttrula at a cost of ₹3 crore, visited BMW Museum, Dachau, Deutsches Museum, Swarovski Crystal Worlds​
  • Japan – 22 students from the sports club​
  • Hong Kong – also visited in this cycle​

2025–26 (Current academic year)

  • Malaysia (February 9–13, 2026) – 40 students with 2 teachers and 2 Chief Education Officers, the 8th international trip under the scheme

By May 2025, the School Education Department officially confirmed that 323 students had travelled abroad through Kalvi Suttrula across all batches. Countries visited to date: UAE, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany – seven countries across three continents.​

The Germany trip alone cost ₹3 crore for 22 students. Extrapolating across all 323 students and 8 trips, the total taxpayer expenditure on this programme across three years runs into tens of crores with no consolidated public accounting published anywhere.

​Every trip also sends senior officials abroad: Joint Directors, District Primary Education Officers, Chief Education Officers at additional undisclosed cost, with Minister Anbil Mahesh either accompanying or video-calling in, generating photos for his personal campaign website anbilmaheshforever.com.

DMK’s propaganda ecosystem specialises in using emotional storytelling, music, and identity politics to bypass factual scrutiny is well-established by this single case study. A government whose Class 3 students score below Bihar in reading levels, whose rural schools run with two teachers, whose Class 8 students average 43 out of 100 in English, is producing a viral cinematic short film about those same students speaking Japanese. That gap between reality and representation is not a communication failure but propaganda disguised as deception.

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Self-Styled Film Critic Sucharita Tyagi Tries To Cope And Cover Her Meltdown Over Dhurandhar 2

By
The Commune
-

Dhurandhar: The Revenge has clearly broken some people’s brains, and this 8‑minute rant by alleged film ‘reviewer’ Sucharita is Exhibit A.

The review is less a film critique and more an ideological tantrum dressed up in English and references. She opens by announcing that to talk about this movie is to talk about “the very face of contemporary Hindi cinema” and immediately positions herself as a noble dissenter surrounded by brainwashed stars, filmmakers and trolls. For a film that she claims is “critic‑proof”, she spends a remarkable amount of time anxiously trying to prove her own courage for criticising it.

Instead of basic criticism – what works, what doesn’t in terms of script, staging, editing, she treats a commercial spy‑action sequel as a human‑rights case file. The most revealing line is when she suggests that someone “better versed in the finer details of international humanitarian law” should comment on the ethics of the backstory, because a death‑row convict is recruited as an undercover agent. This is where the review collapses into self‑parody. This “film critic” needs IHL experts to examine a genre trope that has been used for decades across world cinema. Governments using condemned prisoners as assets is practically a cliché; to suddenly discover a moral crisis here only because the film’s politics offend her is laughable.

Her political discomfort bleeds into every frame. She cannot get over “New India, very male, very angry, very ready to wage war”, repeats that everyone else is “weak and incompetent”, and then declares the whole thing “unfazed propaganda”. The fact that the movie has a disclaimer, caricatured versions of real figures, obvious Easter eggs and heightened villains is acknowledged and then ignored because she needs it to be sinister, not pulpy. Modi’s speeches, demonetisation references, Dawood‑like dons, Atiq‑like gangsters: all of this is read not as deliberate, provocative masala but as proof of some dangerous project that must be resisted.

When she briefly concedes that the hair–makeup is excellent, the casting sharp, Ranveer competent, Arijit’s “Phir Se” beautiful, it’s almost accidental. She immediately runs away into detours about Triangle of Sadness, Iron Claw, Just Mercy – anything to signal that she belongs to a higher, more civilised cinema, not this vulgar, angry, massy world that actual audiences are flocking to. By the end she’s not analysing Dhurandhar; she’s policing it. If the film is “clap‑trapping” propaganda, her review is pure performative outrage: overblown, humourless, and so desperate to score political points that it forgets the first duty of criticism – engage honestly with the work on its own terms, not as a prop in your culture‑war monologue.

It is noteworthy that just a few months ago, when Dhurandhar (part 1) was released, held a group therapy session with her woke peers. She could not stop whining about the volume of negative comments that far exceeded her video’s views, leading her to question whether some responses were coordinated. At one point, she suggested, then quickly walked back, the possibility that people may have been “deployed” to target critics, clarifying she did not believe the filmmakers were involved. She also asked whether director Aditya Dhar should address aggressive fan behaviour. The therapy session or rather a group rant session was due to the backlash from viewers over genuine disagreement rather than organised trolling.

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