A member of the Communist Party has been accused of spreading a cartoon on WhatsApp that illustrates a woman wearing a hijab and an character from the Mahabharata, disrobing the Hijab. The hijab controversy has become a big topic of discussion across the country. While many are posting their views on this, left-wing thinkers have been working to provoke religious riots in Tamil Nadu over this issue. 

In line with this, a Communist Party member named Saminathan from the Gudiyatham area of ​​Vellore district, spread a cartoon on his WhatsApp groups. The cartoon is illustrated in such a way that it looks like a Hindu man (looking like a character from Hindu epics) is disrobing a woman wearing a Hijab. Given that this cartoon has provoked communal disturbance in the area, the Hindu Munnani have lodged a complaint with the local police, to take action against this individual. 

வேலூர் மாவட்டம் குடியாத்தம் வாட்சாப் குழுக்களில் இந்துக்கள் இஸ்லாமிய பெண்களின் ஹிஜாப்பை மஹாபாரதத்தில் சேலை உருவுவதை போல் ஹிஜாப்பை உருவுவதாக சித்தரித்த கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சியை சேர்ந்த சாமிநாதன் என்பவர் மீது வழக்குப் பதிவு செய்ய புகார் மனு அளிக்கப்பட்டது.#இந்துமுன்னணி #வேலூர் #ஹிஜாப் pic.twitter.com/xAKtO5Nqlg

— Hindu Munnani (@hindumunnaniorg) February 16, 2022

(With inputs from Kathir News)

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As the Local Body Polls are nearing in Tamil Nadu, election supervisors and officers are on rounds doing their electoral duties without fail, to ensure the elections are happening freely and fairly. In one such case, the election commission has seized 135 bags of rice from a candidate in Trichy.

Mohd Jeyuddin contesting from Ward 47 in Trichy had stocked almost 2300 kg of rice, in 135 bags. He had stocked this up, in order to distribute it to voters in and around his ward, in order to make them vote for him. The election commission has now seized this rice bags, and are planning to distribute it to Ration card holders.

Election officials seize 2300 kg of rice in 135 bags kept by independent candidate Mohd Jeyauddin contesting from Ward 47 of Trichy corporation to distribute to voters.
Officials to distribute seized rice to ration card holders. @xpresstn @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/gJISpwgAW1

— Jayakumar Madala (@JayakumarMadala) February 16, 2022

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Last year, DMK HR&CE Minister Sekar Babu announced that the HR&CE department recovered 5.5 acres of land that belonged to the Vadapalani temple, from encroachers. The announcement, which came in the month of June last year, also said that the property was worth ₹250 crores.

சென்ற வருடம் ஜூலை மாதம் 250 கோடி மதிப்புள்ள 5.5 ஏக்கர் வடபழனி கோவில் நிலத்தை ஆக்கிரமிப்பாளர்களிடமிருந்து மீட்டதாக திமுக அமைச்சர் சேகர்பாபு சொன்னது உங்கள் நினைவில் இருக்கும்.

அது உண்மையா?? pic.twitter.com/ooaBsTTRzK

— Krishna Kumar Murugan (@ikkmurugan) February 16, 2022

However, an RTI from 2019 says something else about this announcement. The RTI clearly mentions that,  this 5.5 acres of property belonging to the Vadapalani temple has been leased for  29 years, dated 22.10.2008. Which means that the DMK government was in power when this land was leased for 29 years.

2019ஆம் ஆண்டு RTI மூலமாகக் கிடைத்த தகவல் இந்த செய்தியை முற்றிலுமாக மறுக்கிறது.

இந்த 5.5 ஏக்கர் நிலம் கடந்த திமுக ஆட்சியில் 29 ஆண்டுகளுக்குக் குத்தகைக்கு விடப்படத்தாக தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

குத்தகை ரத்து செய்தது எப்படி ஆக்கிரமிப்பு மீட்பாகும்? pic.twitter.com/Aqpn3ca7mz

— Krishna Kumar Murugan (@ikkmurugan) February 16, 2022

However, the DMK government might have cut short the period of the lease, last year in June. But, how does that make it the recovery of the land from encroachers? The announcement made by Sekar Babu last year, clearly mentions that the land was recovered from encroachment. However, this land was only leased to some private individual, not encroached. This contradiction now makes us think whether all temple property that the HR&CE has claimed to have recovered after the DMK came to power, were actually recovered from encroachers.

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Zakul Hameed (27) and Mohammed Sadiq Basha are from Kangayam, Ottapalayam. Last night, the two were sitting in-front of a private Mariamman temple and were having a conversation. Another from the locality, Thangavel, asked the two, “Why are you sitting here at this time of the night and conversing loudly?” On asking this, the two parties got into a major argument and tiff.

In the fight that ensued, the two, Zakul and Sadiq, picked up a stone from the ground, and flung it a the Mariamman mud statue that was in-front of the temple. They then fled the place. The statue was damaged because of the petty fight that followed the argument. The Kangayam Police then arrested both Zakul Hameed and Mohammed Sadiq Basha after a complaint was registered.

(With inputs from Dinamalar)

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Four election supervisors have been replaced in the past 15 days in the Coimbatore district due to an increase in political clashes and subsequent tensions.  The DMK is very particular in bagging seats in Coimbatore, as the party has no MLAs from the district. On the other hand, AIADMK is working to sustain the success that they saw in Coimbatore, during the Assembly elections.

BJP, that is contesting alone, is of the aim to atleast get a sizeable number of ward councillors through this elections, and is therefore working towards the same, just like the other Dravidian parties. In this light, the state election commission officials are caught in the middle with the ruling party on the one side and the opposition parties on the other. They are unaware of the steps they need to take, because which ever side they lean towards, they will end up facing trouble.

It is being reported that even IAS officers are not comfortable coming to this region to become an election supervisor. In a way to confirm this report, almost 4 Election Supervisors have been replaced in Coimbatore in just the past 15 days.

When supervisors were allocated for all the 38 districts on February 1, IAS officer Mariam Pallavi Baldev was appointed for this region. However, it is being said that she could not make it to the region because she was unwell. She was then replaced by IAS officer Har Sahay Meena, who was doing a good job, supervising polling booths and vote counting booths. While the reason is still unclear, she was replaced by Pawan Kumar Panchal, on Saturday.

Many in the region were not even aware of the placement of this IAS officer. Only when he participated in a number of supervisions, including the checking of Postal vote boxes, did many authorities discover that he was the new Election Supervisor. However, even he is replaced by an IAS Officer, Govinda Rao, who is now the Electoral Supervisor for Kovai. He has started performing his duties in Kovai from yesterday.

With just 3 days left for the Elections, political clashes and enmity between the political parties have increased, resulting in widespread fear. So, the question at stake here is whether this IAS officer will be able to sustain until the elections.

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