News Tamil Nadu

District Collector Or DMK Cadre? Virudhunagar Collector Faces Flak For Pro-DMK Govt Tweet, Calls India A Subcontinent

May 8, 2023
The Commune

The DMK government is commemorating its two years in power with a full fledged campaign titled “Eedilla Aatchi, Irandaande Saatchi”, meanning “Incomparable Rule, 2 Years Is Testimony To That”.

In light of this the Tamil Nadu Government’s Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) has been putting creatives on social media highlighting the major initiatives taken in the last two years.

The creatives feel like DMK’s propaganda paraphernalia as they glorify MK Stalin with his image featuring prominently with the Tamil Nadu government logo in the corner.

While the DIPR is bound to broadcast pro-government (in this case the DMK government) schemes, it is expected that civil servants remain neutral at least before the public.

Many district collector handles (Thanjavur, Tiruvallur, Salem to name a few) either retweeted DIPR’s tweets or refrained posting any.

However, Virudhunagar Collector Dr V P Jeyaseelan I.A.S has gone on a tweeting spree sharing the creatives as an image and with a caption.

One of the creatives he shared was about Keezhadi museum which he had shared with the caption “ஈடில்லா ஆட்சி இரண்டாண்டே சாட்சி” – இந்திய துணைக் கண்டத்தின் வரலாறு which translates to “Eedilla Aatchi, Irandaande Saatchi – History of the Indian subcontinent”.

It is to be noted that the DMK and other Dravidian Stockists consider India as a subcontinent comprising of different nations and not a unified civilizational nation. They refer to India as a “Union of States” implying that the present-day India is just a political arrangement for administrative convenience.

This tweet of the Virudhunagar Collector went viral on social media. Apart from this, he had shared many other creatives that glorify CM Stalin’s government, with many asking if he is a District Collector or a DMK cadre.

Following the backlash, a clarification was issued by the District Collector Office saying that it was done as per the DIPR’s “advice”. It is worth noting that Dr Jeyaseelan was earlier the Director of DIPR.

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