Edappadi Palaniswami slams DMK govt for filing false cases to suppress freedom of expression

On Sunday, Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami slammed the DMK government for allegedly filing fake charges against AIADMK’s IT wing cadres.

“A case has been registered against News J, a TV channel of the AIADMK party, and members of the party’s IT wing based on some posts they had posted years ago,” he stated in a press release.

Warning DMK that the AIADMK will not sit idle if the police resort to arm twisting methods, he said,” In addition, about 120 AIADMK cadre have been threatened with having their social media posts removed. We will have to resort to legal action if the administration and police do not halt this excess.”

He said that police harassment is being perpetrated against party officials and cadres, especially IT cell office bearers, and he urged the chief minister to intervene quickly and put an end to the harassment.

He added that criticism is inevitable in a democracy and that the DMK must accept that the government will face harsh criticism from the opposition. He also cautioned that resorting to police cases against critics will be fiercely opposed.

Meanwhile, the AIADMK is planning a massive IT campaign to expose the government’s failures on the issue of Covid management, as well as faults in its policies. The group also intends to make public the identities of police officers who are threatening party members and the ministers who are responsible for such activities.

Since assuming power, the DMK has suppressed freedom of expression by filing false charges against cadres of opposition parties who actively criticize the DMK government.

A few days back, BJP IT wing office-bearer Saravana Kumar from Dindigul was arrested for allegedly criticizing the DMK government and later released following a protest by BJP cadres in front of the police station.

It is worth noting that, even before DMK came to power, DMK MP from Dharmapuri Dr. Senthilkumar threatened to put popular YouTuber Maridhas and political commentator Kishore K Swamy behind bars once the party comes to power.

On January 2, the DMK MP took a jibe at Maridhas who following Rajinikanth’s announcement to quit politics, issued a statement saying that he was taking a sabbatical as he felt ‘tired’ and needed some rest and peace to sort out further scheme of things. In response to this, Senthilkumar said “You are already saying ‘you are tired’, ‘you need rest’. How fair is it? The game has not even begun. It is from now that ‘special’ legal incidents are about to start”.

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