News Tamil Nadu

DMK-Buttressing Dravidianist ‘Journo’ Who Opposed Developmental Projects When DMK Was In Opposition Now Becomes Champion Of Development

January 21, 2025
The Commune

The breed of ‘journalists’ in Tamil Nadu, who routinely tailor their agendas and narratives to align with the interests of political parties, has become an all-too-common and disappointing sight. These media personalities, often masquerading as unbiased voices, are more invested in serving their political masters than in upholding the principles of ethical journalism. Their shifting stances, depending on which party holds power, reveal a disturbing lack of integrity and a blatant disregard for the public trust. 

Here is an example of the sheer hypocrisy exhibited by DMK-buttressing Dravidianist journalist Nelson Xavier.

Following Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leader – actor-turned-politician Vijay’s move to meet the people of Parandur (on 20 January 2025) who are protesting the building of a second airport for Chennai, Xavier wrote on his X handle, “The road that TVK leader Vijay is currently traveling on from Panayur is called Rajiv Gandhi IT Corridor. It is a road that has been planned and prepared for a length of about 45 km. In order to build IT companies that have ensured the future of lakhs of youth/families in Chennai, thousands of people gave up their houses and lands to the government and the road was built. Even though each family received compensation, they were uprooted from the place where they lived. It is on that that the Tamil Nadu IT sector is currently thriving and growing. The same procedure is followed for the 2000-acre IT park set up in Siruseri. Thousands of people have lost their lands for the Chennai-Kanyakumari National Highway. Whatever infrastructure we use today, whether it is roads, educational institutions, industrial parks, special economic zones, universities, we will have to face the social, economic and ecological losses. The Madurai branch of the Madras High Court is now located on a large pond. Tamil Nadu ranks first in India in urbanization. What the Tamil Nadu political parties need to do now is to ensure that the government provides proper compensation when acquiring land and to monitor whether all the rules imposed by the law are followed properly. Doing this without compromise should be the top priority. Our Chennai is already ten years behind the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad. This second airport of Chennai should have come 15 years ago. When all the efforts to push back the development of Tamil Nadu are in full swing at the national level, do not join hands with them, friends.”

From this post, one might assume that Xavier has been rooting for development in the state and is very progressive in his thoughts. However, a little digging into his X handle for his old posts gives an entirely different picture – one that confirms that all “journalists” in TN are mere mouthpieces of the DMK, not recently, but for a very long time.

When the DMK was in the opposition, they vehemently opposed the proposed plan for a airport. People like Xavier also helped amplify a narrative that it would be detrimental for the state and its people. Here’s what he wrote, “Imagine a village with a hundred houses. It is a village with fields, forests, hills, grounds, shops, small mills and water bodies. In a village of a hundred families, the total assets are on an average only 30 families (more likely even fewer) but the remaining 60% depend on the land for their basic livelihood. 30% of the land can be purchased from the families at full cost when acquiring land for some government scheme. That is why we are seeing many news such as protests, low prices, opposition to taking agricultural land. But the landowners get a legal sum at least. The news is also circulating around it.

But the main problem with land acquisition is different. Two-thirds of the people who depended on the land but had no property, such as those who worked as wage laborers, owned grocery stores, worked in small factories and rented houses, were going to move to another place as refugees. The land acquisition laws do not have clear guidelines as to what the government is going to do for the livelihood of these propertyless people taking into account the socio-economic status of the government scheme. Land does not belong only to the owner. It is for society. Land is an investment- trust. Land is power. Expropriation of land is tantamount to expropriation of power. Nothing can be taken away from a landless person, there is life to take away and the self-respecting life he has lived till then.”

The glaring hypocrisy of DMK-buttressing “journalists” like Nelson Xavier exposes the shameless double standards that plague Tamil Nadu’s media landscape. Xavier, who once vehemently opposed the Parandur airport project, painting it as a socio-economic and ecological disaster, now conveniently champions the same project, cloaking his U-turn in the garb of “development” and “progress.” This blatant flip-flop is not just a betrayal of journalistic integrity but a stark reminder of how such individuals function as mere puppets of the DMK, parroting the party’s narrative, whether in opposition or in power. Their so-called principles are as fluid as the political tides, and their credibility is buried under the weight of their opportunism.

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