Joseph Vijay, chief of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, claims his party has nominated candidates who are highly educated and committed to serving the people of Tamil Nadu.
In our earlier report, we indicated that the candidates are a list of defectors from other parties such as the DMK, AIADMK, and the Congress, among others.
In this report, we take a look at the top 5 candidates and explore their backgrounds.
#1 Dr Kanimozhi Santosh – Kavundampalayam – Claims Astrology Can Cure Cancer/Infertility
While she has a ‘Dr’ attached to her name, she is not a medical doctor. She could likely be a PhD. In reality, Kanimozhi is a businesswoman running several enterprises in Coimbatore, including Tile Pro, Granite Pro, and Stone Pro. In addition, she is also known as a prominent celebrity astrologer.
She became instantly controversial the moment her candidature was announced because of a viral clip in which she claims that infertility, and reportedly cancer, can be treated through astrology.
#2 Advocate Sathyakumar – Models Himself Physically To Resemble Ambedkar
Dubbed ‘Meesho’ Ambedkar, advocate Sathyakumar is our next candidate in the top 5 list. It is noteworthy that in the past, Sathyakumar has ridiculed and criticised Vijay claiming he needed more time in politics to become a true politician.
#3 Dr Maria Wilson – R.K. Nagar, Chennai – ‘Educationist’ Who Showers Abuses & Assaults Women
Dr. N. Maria Wilson is the son-in-law of the late Jeppiar, Tamil Nadu’s well-known educational magnate, and has served as Managing Director of Jeppiar Institute of Technology for over 14 years. He joined TVK in June 2025, quickly rising to Policy Propagation General Secretary before being fielded from R.K. Nagar.
But his candidacy collapsed into controversy within 24 hours of the full list dropping. On 30 March 2026, a video went viral showing Wilson allegedly barging into a woman’s home and physically assaulting her. TVK’s women’s protector problem now has company.
#4 Jagannath Mishra – Cumbum – Caste Fanatic
Mishra is described by TVK as a social activist and anti-caste campaigner. A self-declared anti-caste crusader caught on camera saying: “I am casteist. I am a caste fanatic.”
#5 V Pandi – Andipatti – Women’s Rights Crusader Who Uses Unparliamentary Language
TVK’s candidate for the Andipatti constituency (Theni district) is “Left” Pandi – a local functionary fielded by the party that routinely positions Vijay as Tamil Nadu’s foremost defender of women’s dignity. The irony is jarring: past videos of V. Pandi have surfaced in which he is seen using unparliamentary and crude language – the very kind of speech TVK publicly condemns when it comes from political rivals. This came to light the day after Vijay’s candidate list was announced.
#6 D. Chandra Kandeeban – Peravurani (Thanjavur District) – Ganja Case Accused Out On Bail
Kandeeban is a former BJP leader who crossed over to TVK and was handed the Peravurani ticket — and is currently out on bail in a ganja (narcotics) case. This is particularly damaging because Vijay’s signature campaign promise at every rally has been a “drug-free Tamil Nadu” – he has thundered against the narcotics menace in speech after speech, making it a central plank of TVK’s governance pitch. The man he chose to carry that message in Peravurani is someone who walked out of a narcotics case on bail.
#7 R Prakash – Poonthamalli – Sexual Assault Accused
Vijay speaks a lot about women’s safety. He criticises the ruling DMK government over failure to protect women and children but he himself has given a ticket to a sexual assault accused R Prakash for the Poonthamalli seat. Irony died several deaths.
On 28 March 2026, filmmaker Vetrimaaran took the stage at the trailer launch of Neelira – a film about the Sri Lankan civil war and delivered what sounded like a principled stand against the commercialisation of hatred in Indian cinema. “Today, everything is turning into propaganda,” he declared.
“Propaganda has the power to influence memory.” He went on to reference demonetisation, implying that films like Dhurandhar: The Revenge were manipulating public memory of national events for political gain. He did not name the film, but no one needed him to – the internet connected the dots within a short time.
It was a well-phrased speech. It was also an act of extraordinary audacity from a director who spent two films, Viduthalai Part 1 (2023) and Viduthalai Part 2 (2024) doing precisely what he accused others of doing: using cinema to reshape memory, rehabilitate extremist violence, and romanticise a separatist armed movement as a noble liberation struggle.
The Speech That Backfired
“Until we tell our stories, our life is what our enemies say they are. We do not have the democracy to tell our own stories“, said Vetrimaaran who made a two-part film glorifying naxalism and constantly peddling subtle propaganda against the Indian government and BJP’s Hindutva politics in his films.
In his remarks, Vetrimaaran lamented: “Today, everything turns into propaganda. Propaganda has the power to influence memory. We all know who was most affected by demonetization and who lost their lives standing in queues. But that impact changed through hate propaganda. What can we do against that hate propaganda? We have to make films like this.”
Crediting the film Neelira, he said “There are many films that cost millions of rupees, wishing to earn hundreds of crores with hatred and violence. This is a film does which not want to sell hate, caricature a race, a community, or a religious sect.”
For a director whose entire oeuvre reads like a Dravidian manifesto wrapped in gritty realism, this sudden pearl-clutching over “hate propaganda” reeks of hypocrisy.
The internet’s response was swift and pointed. While a section of fans applauded him for calling out Dhurandhar 2, a far larger and angrier section of netizens immediately asked the obvious question: what exactly was Viduthalai, if not precisely the kind of ideologically driven cinema he was now condemning? One user wrote bluntly: “Vetrimaran who literally did Viduthalai (1 and 2), a soft Naxal propaganda film which justifies killing police and people, planting bombs in trains, is speaking about this – not surprised.”
Vetrimaran who literally did Viduthalai (1&2) a soft naxal propaganda Film which justify killing police and people, planting b*mb in train is speaking about this , not surprised. A terror sympathizer as usual
Viduthalai Part 2 is not a work of imagination set in a vaguely political universe. Its characters, ideology, geography, and even organisational structure map almost directly onto a real banned terrorist outfit, the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA), declared a terrorist organisation by the Government of India and formally proscribed under POTA on 2 July 2002.
The TNLA’s origin story is precisely what the film fictionalises. When prominent Tamil Naxalite leaders, Pulavar Kaliyaperumal, a schoolteacher, and Thamizharasan, an engineering student from Ponparappi demanded a separate Tamil Nadu from the all-India CPI(ML) leadership, the national party flatly rejected the idea. This led to a formal split and the formation of the Tamil Nadu Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), TNCP-ML, in 1984–85. Its political wing was the TNCP-ML; its armed wing was the TNLA. The film’s “Vaathiyaar” Perumal is modelled directly on Kaliyaperumal even the title “Vaathiyaar” (teacher) is borrowed from real life. Vetrimaaran has never publicly acknowledged this lineage, preferring the safety of fiction’s deniability.
The real TNLA was not a romantic liberation movement. It bombed police stations to seize weapons, derailed trains, attacked television relay towers and bridges, and conducted targeted killings across Tiruchi, South Arcot, Ariyalur, Dharmapuri, and Jayamkondam. Its attacks included railway tracks in Cuddalore, the Rockfort Express, the bridge used during the Prime Minister’s visit, and television towers across multiple districts. The TNLA was also directly linked to forest brigand Veerappan, with five TNLA activists’ release among Veerappan’s ten demands when he abducted Dr. Rajkumar in July 2000. Thamizharasan himself died on 1 September 1987, when the people of Ponparappi village lynched him and four associates during a bank robbery attempt. This is the movement Viduthalai romanticises.
Vetrimaaran embeds the ideology at the film’s very first frame but not subtly. The title card appears over the hammer and sickle symbol, which then transitions into the same sickle being used by a sugar mill owner to kill Mahalakshmi’s father (Manju Warrier’s character).
Image Source: Raja X handleImage Source: Raja X handle
The symbolism is deliberate and double-edged: the tools of the proletariat are first weaponised by the oppressor class, before being reclaimed as instruments of liberation. This is entry-level Marxist visual grammar, and Vetrimaaran deploys it with full intent.
The narrative architecture that follows is a textbook emotional manipulation sequence. Mahalakshmi, despite belonging to the landowning class, is drawn to Marxist ideology and joins the VJS movement – a classic “class traitor as moral compass” trope designed to signal that the ideology transcends caste and class. The film then employs the same sympathy-building template Vetrimaaran used in Asuran: landlords brutalising labourers, brutal beatings, and the burning of a school filled with children – all designed to manufacture righteous rage in the audience before the movement’s retaliatory violence begins.
Image Source: Raja X handle
Mahalakshmi’s father Ashokan kills his own daughter for choosing the movement. The child born of her self-respect marriage in a communist party office is also killed.
Image Source: Raja X handleImage Source: Raja X handle
These scenes are not storytelling; they are emotional loading, designed to pre-justify every act of violence the movement subsequently commits.
Part-time teacher Perumal, radicalised at the sugar mill, becomes a communist and the film frames this as moral awakening, not ideological indoctrination. A northern communist leader, played by Anurag Kashyap, arrives to bless and encourage the movement before departing – a pointed piece of casting that signals the all-India Naxalite intellectual class’s validation of Tamil armed struggle. That Kashyap, a filmmaker closely associated with left-liberal cultural circles, plays this role is not incidental. It is a cultural endorsement built into the film’s DNA.
Image Source: Raja X handle
The film’s present-day sequence, where an honest police officer Soori produces Perumal in court for a life sentence, is presented as the system’s ultimate failure, not its success. Perumal going to prison is mourned, not welcomed. The film closes with the movement’s ideological flame still burning, its martyrs memorialised with red flags, black badges, and drumbeats. The CBFC reportedly blurred out hammer-and-sickle symbols during the theatrical run which itself confirms how overt the ideological iconography was before regulatory intervention, yet the film’s fundamental argument remained untouched.
ஒன்னத்துக்கும் ஆகாத
இந்திய Communist Party of Marxist/Leninistகிட்ட போய் தனி தமிழ்நாடு கேட்டு அதுக்கு ஒத்தகிராம Tamilnadu Communist Party of Marxist/Leninist உருவாக்க, அதோட ஆயுதஅணியினர் தான்இந்த தமிழ்நாடு விடுதலை ராணுவம்!
1/N pic.twitter.com/Ek7n5RNSCX
This is the film whose director now lectures India about propaganda.
Unlike Dhurandhar 2, Viduthalai 2 Was A Badly Made Sh*t Film
Viduthalai positions itself alongside politically charged films like Asuran and Karnan but ultimately failed to match their depth and emotional impact. The film has extremely weak storytelling, inconsistent character arcs, and confused messaging. A major concern is its apparent glorification of Maoist violence through the character of Perumal Vaathiyar, with repeated justifications for violent methods.
Ironically, the same character later advocates non-violence, creating a contradiction that weakens the narrative. The film also attempts to blend communist themes with Dravidian ideology, which feels forced and historically inconsistent.
Technical issues such as poor editing, unsynchronized dubbing, and lack of continuity further affect the viewing experience. Despite strong performances and visuals, the film was Vetrimaaran’s weakest work, prioritizing political messaging over coherent filmmaking.
Who Decides What Counts As Propaganda?
Vetrimaaran’s speech was built around the phrase “upholding an ideology” which he presented as the opposite of propaganda. But propaganda has never been defined as content without ideology. It is defined as content that uses emotional manipulation, selective framing, and narrative distortion to advance a political position while concealing that it is doing so.
By that definition, Viduthalai 1 and 2 qualify far more precisely than Dhurandhar 2. Dhurandhar openly celebrates India’s counter-terrorism history, its politics are on its sleeve. The other by Vetrimaaran presents a barely fictionalised Naxalite separatist organisation as a noble liberation movement, never names its real-world inspiration, and relies on its audience not connecting the dots between the screen and the SATP database.
Vetrimaaran is free to dislike Dhurandhar. But the audience is equally free to notice that the director most publicly denouncing propaganda in Indian cinema built his recent filmography on exactly that foundation.
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BBC Hindi, the Indian-language service of Britain’s state-funded public broadcaster, published a report on March 27–28, 2026, claiming that India’s strategic petroleum reserves could meet only approximately five days of national demand – a claim that has since been officially flagged as misleading by the Press Information Bureau and widely condemned by government officials, economists, and media observers, as reported in OpIndia.
The article, citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit, stated that India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) caverns were less than one-third full, presenting it as a critical vulnerability in the country’s energy security particularly in the context of geopolitical tensions in West Asia and the risk of a disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
The news report has since been deleted.
What BBC Hindi did not tell its readers was the full picture.
Image Source: OpIndia
The Number BBC Hindi Chose Not to Publish
India’s total petroleum buffer, when all components are counted, amounts to approximately 74 days – not five. The 5-day figure refers solely to the emergency SPR caverns, which are designed as a last-resort strategic backstop, not as a primary supply mechanism. Once operational stocks held by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), crude oil in transit, and refinery inventories are included, the total available buffer stands at around 74 days – a fact confirmed by the Indian government and publicly available through multiple official sources.
PIB Fact Check formally labelled claims built around the 5-day figure as “#Misleading”, confirming that current stock cover across all components stands close to 60 days and that no shortage of petrol, diesel, or LPG exists anywhere in the country.
📣 कुछ सोशल मीडिया पोस्ट में यह दावा किया जा रहा है कि भारत के पास ‘सिर्फ़ 5 दिन का रणनीतिक तेल भंडार’ मौजूद है।#PIBFactCheck:
❌ यह दावा भ्रामक है।
✅ भारत की कुल भंडार क्षमता 74 दिनों की है और अभी लगभग 60 दिनों का स्टॉक उपलब्ध है। इसमें कच्चे तेल का भंडार, उत्पाद भंडार और… pic.twitter.com/U9QHQ4hCEY
BBC Hindi published the 5-day figure. It did not publish the 74-day figure. They chose to peddle an anti-India propaganda.
India’s Supply Chain: The Reality BBC Hindi Buried
While BBC Hindi leaned into West Asia-related risk to frame its report, it completely omitted the steps India has already taken to neutralise that very risk.
Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri confirmed that India has already procured crude volumes exceeding those dependent on the Strait of Hormuz route. More strikingly, 75% of India’s crude imports now arrive via routes entirely outside the Strait of Hormuz — up from 55% just months ago. The country has diversified its sourcing to over 40 nations, including the United States, Russia, Norway, and Algeria. LPG production has increased by 28% in a short span.
These are not minor footnotes. They are the central facts of India’s energy security story in 2026. BBC Hindi chose to omit all of them.
The CAG Figure: Legitimate Concern, Illegitimate Framing
To be precise: the underlying CAG finding has some merit. India’s SPR caverns currently sit at approximately 64% of their 5.33 MMT capacity, a gap that the government itself has acknowledged needs to be addressed. Raising this as a policy concern is entirely valid journalism.
But responsible reporting would have placed that 64% cavern fill level in its correct context – as one layer of a multi-tiered petroleum security system, not as the entirety of India’s fuel reserves. BBC Hindi presented the emergency reserve shortfall as India’s total energy exposure. This kind of framing plays to the anti-India gallery, that the BBC belongs to.
Deleted Post, Lasting Damage
Following widespread backlash, the BBC Hindi social media post amplifying the report was deleted. The original article was subsequently updated. But screenshots had already been shared across platforms, the 5-day figure had already been cited in hundreds of posts, and the panic narrative had already entered the broader information ecosystem.
The Petroleum Ministry did not hold back in its response, warning that spreading false information about essential commodities is punishable under Indian law.
In an era of hybrid information warfare, state-funded foreign media operating in domestic languages carries an asymmetric potential for harm. A single alarmist post about oil shortage, stripped of context, and timed against a geopolitical flashpoint, can accomplish what no diplomatic statement can easily undo.
The question is no longer whether BBC Hindi made an error. The question is why the same “errors” keep pointing in the same direction.
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The unearthing of Congress-era news continues to this day in the aftermath of the Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge movie release.
In today’s instalment, we take a look at a time 14 years back in history when the then-UPA government called the army chief ‘a frustrated man’.
This was reported by several mainstream media.
On 12 March 2012, Army Chief General V.K. Singh wrote a classified letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warning that India’s military was dangerously unprepared to defend itself against two hostile neighbours – China and Pakistan. India Today and The New Indian Express reported the contents of the letter after it leaked.
What the Army Chief Actually Said
In the letter to the PMO, Gen Singh wrote: “The state of the major fighting arms – Mechanised Forces, Artillery, Air Defence, Infantry and Special Forces, as well as the Engineers and Signals, is indeed alarming.” He urged the Prime Minister to “pass suitable directions to enhance the preparedness of the Army.” The specific deficiencies flagged were:
The entire tank fleet was devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks
Air Defence was 97% obsolete and could not provide deemed confidence against aerial threat
Infantry had severe deficiencies in crew-served weapons and lacked night-fighting capabilities
Elite Special Forces were “woefully short of essential weapons”
The Army was facing these failures against the “reality of large land borders” and “two inimical neighbours”
Gen Singh also noted that the “hollowness” in the system was caused by slow procurement procedures, a lack of urgency at all levels, and poor work quality.
The Congress Government’s Response: Attack the Messenger
Rather than treating the letter as a national security emergency, the UPA government and its allies turned their fire on Gen Singh:
Defence Minister A.K. Antony told Parliament: “I am aware of the letter and government will take appropriate action at appropriate time. It is a top-secret paper – it should not have been leaked.” His primary concern was the leak, not the crisis.
Union Minister Vayalar Ravi publicly dismissed the Army Chief outside Parliament, saying: “The Army is a disciplined force. (He) could not get an extension even by the court. May be a frustrated man suffers.” He labelled it the “action of a frustrated individual.”
JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari, then a UPA ally, attacked the Army Chief directly: “The Army Chief’s conduct is now doubtful. It seems that he is lying. Now that he has got involved in the controversy, he is trying to pass the buck.”
Government sources told the press that the letter amounted to a “breach of protocol” because Gen Singh had written to the PM instead of limiting it to the Defence Minister.
SP and RJD, both UPA allies, publicly demanded the Army Chief be sacked.
Parliamentary Uproar – Against the Chief, Not the Crisis
When the letter became public, Parliament saw an uproar. The opposition’s demand was not that the government address the ammunition shortage or weapons crisis, but that the Army Chief be dismissed for “gross indiscipline.” The government convened a high-level meeting involving PM Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Antony, and Home Minister P. Chidambaram ,not to fix the military deficiencies, but to assess action against Gen Singh.
What Followed After Retirement
After Gen Singh retired in May 2012 and joined the BJP, Congress threatened him with legal action in September 2013.
In 2019, Gen Singh publicly alleged that two UPA ministers were involved in fabricating a fake “military coup” story in 2012 as a conspiracy to discredit him, and he wrote to PM Narendra Modi seeking a high-level probe into the matter.
The Bottom Line
A sitting Army Chief formally warned the Prime Minister that Indian soldiers were facing two nuclear-armed adversaries without adequate ammunition, weapons, or air cover. The Congress government’s documented response was to call him “a frustrated man,” investigate the letter’s leak, debate dismissing him, and eventually threaten him with legal action after he retired. The ammunition and infrastructure crisis he warned about was, as reported at the time, already an open secret inside the defence establishment.
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A compensation promise announced by Arvind Kejriwal during the COVID-19 pandemic, but later denied by his own government, has now been enforced by the Delhi High Court with the financial liability falling on the current BJP administration.
In its 27 March 2026 order in Prem Sheela Kumari v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Anr. (W.P. (C) 3310/2024), the Court directed the Government of NCT of Delhi to pay ₹1 crore compensation to the family of Dr. Raja Ram Singh, a government school vice principal who died after contracting COVID-19 while performing official duties.
The compensation was part of a scheme announced by Kejriwal in May 2020 under Cabinet Decision No. 2835, which promised ₹1 crore to families of frontline workers who died while serving during the pandemic. The scheme explicitly included teachers, police personnel, civil defence volunteers, and sanitation workers.
However, the claim in this case had been rejected by a Group of Ministers (GoM) under the then Aam Aadmi Party government, which argued that the deceased was performing “routine duty” and not “COVID duty.”
Rejecting this reasoning, the High Court held that such a distinction was arbitrary and contrary to the intent of the scheme. It observed that the deceased had been deployed at a government-designated Hunger Relief Centre, supervising ration distribution during the pandemic, and had contracted COVID-19 in the course of those duties.
Dr. Raja Ram Singh died on 29 May 2021, after being infected while carrying out these responsibilities under official directions.
The Court further noted that similar denials in other cases including Smt. Ram Dulari v. GNCTD and Narender Kumar v. GNCTD had also been overturned, with the judiciary consistently rejecting the government’s attempt to narrowly interpret eligibility under the scheme.
With the ruling, the obligation to pay compensation now rests with the present Delhi administration, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The judgment has reignited questions over how many such claims were denied under the scheme despite the original public assurances, and how many families may still be awaiting relief through judicial intervention.
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A political controversy has erupted ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections after Mahua Moitra made remarks about the Gujarati community during a media interaction on 28 March 2026.
As reported in OpIndia, the Trinamool Congress MP, while criticising Union Home Minister Amit Shah, questioned the contribution of Gujaratis to India’s freedom struggle. She stated that Bengalis had played a leading role in the independence movement and suggested that the contribution of Gujaratis was comparatively limited.
During her remarks, Moitra referred to the number of freedom fighters who were sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, commonly known as Kala Pani, and claimed that a significant proportion of them were from Bengal. She also questioned whether there were notable Gujarati figures among those imprisoned there, while referring to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the context of her criticism.
#WATCH | Kolkata | TMC MP Mahua Moitra says, “Bengalis are a very proud race. We led the war for independence against the British. Who were the Gujaratis?… 68% of the names of the people who were killed and incarcerated in Kala Pani were Bengalis, followed by Punjabis. Can you… pic.twitter.com/w61O2KpSQX
Her comments have drawn attention for factual inaccuracies, including the reference to Savarkar as being from Gujarat, whereas he was from Maharashtra. It is noteworthy that several prominent leaders of the freedom movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, were from Gujarat.
In her remarks, Moitra also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of targeting the Bengali community in the context of action against illegal immigration. She expressed concern over measures taken by the central government, stating that they were affecting Bengalis, particularly in states bordering Bangladesh.
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A fresh dispute has emerged over the Keeladi excavation report, with the Archaeological Survey of India directing National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities director K. Amarnath Ramakrishna to incorporate revisions suggested by its internal committee.
The development marks a continuation of the ongoing exchange between the two sides over the findings and interpretation of the Keeladi excavations in Tamil Nadu.
Ramakrishna, who led the first two phases of the excavation between 2014 and 2016, had reported evidence of an early urban Tamil civilisation dating back to 800-500 BCE. However, following a review, the ASI described his report as “ambiguous, incomplete and underdeveloped.”
Responding to the assessment earlier this year, Ramakrishna had stated that the evaluation was “unprecedented” and alleged that it was influenced by AI-assisted analysis. In a subsequent communication dated March 27, the ASI asked him to reconsider his response and carry out the required improvements to the excavation report.
ASI’s Director (Exploration and Excavation), Hemsagar A. Naik, stated that Ramakrishna, as a government official, was duty-bound to comply with the directive and submit a compliance report. However, Ramakrishna maintained that the findings and conclusions in his report should be treated as final, arguing that there was no justification to alter the chronology of the site.
The dispute intensified after the ASI issued a notice to Ramakrishna on March 17, citing “willful disobedience, dereliction of duty and misconduct.” The notice stated that he had failed to attend a scheduled briefing meeting related to parliamentary questions without prior intimation to senior officials.
According to the memo, Ramakrishna’s actions amounted to “willful insubordination, gross negligence, and failure to maintain devotion to duty,” and were in violation of established conduct rules. The ASI further stated that such non-compliance, particularly in matters linked to parliamentary work, constituted serious administrative misconduct and could invite action under the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965.
The notice sought an explanation from Ramakrishna within seven days, warning that failure to respond would result in further action being initiated.
In an earlier communication dated 23 May 2025, Ramakrishna had defended his methodology, stating that the chronology of the Keeladi excavation was reconstructed based on primary evidence, including cultural deposits, stratigraphic sequences and material findings, in accordance with established ASI principles and methods.
The Keeladi excavation has been a subject of significant academic and political interest, particularly for its implications regarding the antiquity and urban characteristics of early Tamil civilisation.
Good to see the ASI taking a firm and methodical stand. While the news item’s title appears misleading, the core message is clear—either provide the necessary evidence to support the report or revise it in line with verifiable proof.
C. Joseph Vijay, founder and leader of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), has made “Secular Social Justice” the official ideology of his party. At his maiden political conference in Villupuram in October 2024, he declared: “Secular social justice ideologies will be our identity; democracy, equality, rational thinking, women’s emancipation and a drugs-free Tamil Nadu will be the focus.”
In May 2025, he told students to “stay away from caste and religious divisive ideas.” At a Christmas celebration in Mahabalipuram in December 2025, he assured: “There will be 100% no compromise on communal harmony. That is the reason our ideology was named Secular Social Justice.”
Yet when it came to choosing where he would personally contest the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Vijay picked Perambur in North Chennai and Trichy East – two constituencies where the Christian community constitutes a decisive electoral bloc.
The Numbers Behind the Choices
Perambur is not an average constituency. A legacy of its railway colony heritage, it carries a historically concentrated Anglo-Indian and Tamil Christian population that has been a decisive electoral factor across multiple elections. Political analysts have noted that this community constitutes a favourable voter-base for Vijay, and news reports confirm that minorities; Christians, Muslims, and Anglo-Indians make up a sizeable chunk of the constituency’s electorate.
Trichy East presents an even sharper picture. The constituency has a major Christian voter base, with Christians constituting approximately 10% of the electorate and the Vellalar Christian community being particularly prominent. Political analysts have described it as a semi-urban constituency of over two lakh voters where the Christian community is a decisive factor, makes the strategy explicit while Perambur is about Vijay’s mass popularity, Trichy East is about community votes.
The Sitting MLA in Trichy East Is Himself a Christian Identity Politician
The DMK’s sitting MLA in Trichy East is Inigo S. Irudayaraj, founder of the Christhuva Nallenna Iyakkam (Christian Good Society Movement), who won the seat in 2021 with 94,302 votes – a 54.6% vote share and a margin of 53,797 votes over the AIADMK.
He is someone who “enjoys notable grassroots connect among Christian communities,” as reported in The New Indian Express. In other words, Vijay has chosen to directly challenge a sitting Christian community MLA in a constituency where Christianity is the dominant identity variable while simultaneously projecting himself as a politician above such identities.
TVK’s Broader Minority Strategy
The constituency choices reflect a wider pattern. TVK has fielded more than 15 Muslim candidates and more than 15 Christian candidates among its 234 seats – a deliberate attempt to fracture the DMK’s near-total hold over the minority vote. It is observed that Trichy East having a substantial minority population means Vijay’s entry will be big trouble for the DMK because the DMK is the foremost recipient of almost entire minority vote.
The Choices He Did Not Make
The most revealing aspect of Vijay’s seat selection is not where he chose to contest – it is where he conspicuously did not. On 27 September 2025, 41 people died and nearly 100 were injured in a stampede at his own TVK rally in Karur. Vijay spent months blaming the DMK government for the tragedy, calling it a conspiracy, demanding accountability, and even refusing to visit the victims’ families pretending as if he was in mourning. The Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation. If Vijay genuinely believed the DMK engineered those deaths, contesting from Karur, fighting for justice in the very district where his supporters were killed would have been the most powerful political statement available to him. He did not.
In January 2025, Vijay made a high-visibility visit to Parandur on the 910th day of farmers protesting against the DMK government’s acquisition of 4,791 acres of fertile wetland for a second Chennai airport. He stood beside them, called the project “a betrayal,” demanded the land be returned, and built an entire narrative of being the farmers’ champion against a government that “supports farmers in opposition and abandons them in power.” The Parandur-adjacent constituencies Sriperumbudur, Uttiramerur, Maduranthakam were available to him. He did not contest there either. Instead, he chose Perambur with its Anglo-Indian and Christian voter base, and Trichy East with its documented Christian electorate.
The farmers of Parandur got a visit and a speech. The 41 families of Karur got a conspiracy theory. The Christian voters of Perambur and Trichy East got the candidate himself. When a politician’s rhetoric and his ballot choices diverge this completely, the ballot is always the more honest document.
The Contradiction
The problem is both personal and political. Vijay is a Christian who is contesting from constituencies with large Christian voter bases, calls himself secular, and instructs others to reject religious identity in public life – that contradiction is not incidental, it is structural. A leader whose personal faith aligns with the dominant community in his chosen constituencies, whose party fields 15+ Christian candidates as a deliberate minority outreach strategy, and whose own strategists openly acknowledge that “community votes” are the decisive factor in Trichy East cannot credibly lecture others about keeping religion out of politics. The message and the method are in direct conflict, and the faith is not separate from that conflict. It is at the centre of it.
TVK is playing the same electoral game it condemns others for playing — just with better branding. When Father Charles Kumar of Vyasarpadi pointedly observed that “Christians will not vote for anyone based on religion alone,” he was responding to exactly this kind of calculation. Vijay’s secular credentials survive only as long as they are not tested by actual electoral strategy. That test has arrived, and the choice of Perambur and Trichy East provides the answer.
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Police in Karnataka seized a private bus from Tamil Nadu in Chikkamagaluru district after it was found displaying graphics allegedly glorifying Dawood Ibrahim, who is designated as a terrorist by Indian authorities.
As reported in Times of India, according to officials, the bus had originated from Coimbatore and was transporting 48 engineering students returning from a college trip to Dandeli. Acting on specific information, Basavanahalli police intercepted the vehicle around 3 pm on Saturday, 28 March 2026.
Police stated that the graphics displayed on the bus were considered prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of the nation. The vehicle, which was being operated by a private travel agency, was subsequently seized.
Authorities arranged an alternative bus to ensure that the students could safely continue their journey.
During questioning, the driver reportedly stated that he was only operating the vehicle and had no role in the design or display of the controversial graphics.
Police have registered a case against both the driver and the owner of the bus under Section 197(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertains to imputations prejudicial to national integration. The owner, who is based in Coimbatore, has been asked to appear before investigators for further inquiry.
TVK chief Vijay released its full list of 234 candidates for the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections on 29 March 2026. Party chief Vijay will himself contest from two constituencies – Perambur and Trichy East. A review of the candidate list shows that several prominent figures carry documented histories in rival political parties.
There are reports being circulated that TVK’s list includes 32 former AIADMK members, 9 former DMK members, and 21 from other parties.
KA Sengottaiyan, a nine-time MLA and former school education minister in the AIADMK government under J Jayalalithaa, is TVK’s chief coordinator and is contesting from the Gobichettipalayam constituency. Ku. Pa. Krishnan, another former AIADMK minister, has been fielded from Lalgudi. J.C.D. Prabhakar, a former AIADMK MLA, is TVK’s candidate for Thousand Lights. V. Sathyabama, who served as an AIADMK MP from Tiruppur in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is contesting Tiruppur North on a TVK ticket.
V.S. Babu, who won the Purasawalkam constituency as a DMK MLA in the 2006 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, has been fielded by TVK in the Kolathur constituency – the seat currently held by Chief Minister MK Stalin.
D. Selvam, former general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), was suspended by TNCC president K. Selvaperunthagai for holding meetings with TVK. He formally joined TVK on 26 March 2026 and is now the party’s candidate in the Chepauk–Thiruvallikeni constituency, currently held by Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
CTR Nirmal Kumar, who served as Tamil Nadu BJP IT Wing chief before resigning in March 2023 and briefly joining the AIADMK, is now TVK’s Deputy General Secretary (IT and Social Media Division) and has been fielded from Thirupparankundram.
Three more ex-AIADMK figures feature in TVK’s list. Dr. A. Sridaran, contesting from Valparai (SC Reserved), is a former AIADMK MLA who won that same seat in 1991. MV Karuppaiah, fielded from Sozhavanthan (SC Reserved), served as an AIADMK MLA from the neighbouring Sholavandan constituency between 2011 and 2016. Reddiarpatti Narayanan, TVK’s candidate in Nanguneri, is also a former AIADMK MLA who crossed over to Vijay’s party after the AIADMK denied him the ticket for the 2026 elections.
In total, in over 60 constituencies TVK has fielded candidates who belong to other parties.
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