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From Romanticizing The Rains To Shifting Blames, DMK’s ‘Godi Media’ Goes All Out To Buttress Stalin Govt

Vallavaraayan

Chennai and other coastal districts in the northern parts of Tamil Nadu have been receiving heavy rainfall since Deepavali.

Many suburbs of Chennai have been inundated due to the continuous downpour with people commuting in boats to fetch essential supplies.

Localities such as T. Nagar, West Mambalam, Kodambakkam, K.K. Nagar, Saidapet and other areas have been inundated due to the indiscriminate dumping of debris and garbage in the drainage canals by Corporation contractors.

People residing even in prime areas in the heart of the city like Alwarpet, Nungambakkam, etc. have been staying without power for four days and have moved to other places as they found it difficult to get even basic supplies like milk and water.

Kolathur, Chief Minister MK Stalin’s own constituency, from where he has been elected MLA since 2011, is in a sorry of affairs with water entering homes, no electricity and people travelling in boats.

Many of the subways in the city like the Madley Subway, Doraiswamy Subway and Aranganathan Subway are brimming with water.

On the other hand, crops have been destroyed in submerged fields in delta districts like Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Thanjavur which has also received heavy rainfall.

However, the media friendly to the ruling DMK have been playing various cards to ensure that these do not get highlighted and bring disrepute to Stalin’s government.

From blaming the previous AIADMK regime and Central Government to romanticizing the weather, here is a look at some of the instances when the Godi Media in Tamil Nadu were playing orchestra to the ruling DMK while Chennai sank.

Behindwoods, a YouTube channel that is popularly known to be friendly to the ruling DMK, took lot of efforts to brush under the carpet the plight of people. In the above video, it can be seen that fishes that are found in lakes have entered flooded streets. However, the anchor discusses how the fishes are having a great time having fun.

In another video published by the channel, it shows children swimming and playing at the Vyasarpadi subway.

The News Minute, a digital news outlet which has no qualms in towing the line of the DMK, published a detailed article about how ‘broken radars and conflicting weather reports‘ led to Chennai floods.

Instead of pointing out the fallacies and the inadequate measures taken by the DMK government, the article tried to shift the blame on Indian Meteorological Department saying that the agency should’ve given ‘red alert’ (asking the state to take action) instead of ‘orange alert’ (to be prepared for floods).

However, the IMD had given a red alert on October 30 warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall to extremely very heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu, Karaikal and Puducherry as back as October 30. It noted that a low pressure area over Sri Lanka off Tamil Nadu coast with the associated cyclonic circulation persists and is likely to move westwards in the next 3-4 days.

But, Chief Minister Stalin was busy watching Jai Bhim on October 31 in a special screening held for him and had written a detailed review about the movie which he posted the next day.

DMK family owned Sun News, resorted to romanticizing the rains saying that Chennaites are enjoying the weather with hot ‘bajjis’ (fritters), tea and Ilayaraja’s music.

They even telecasted separate segment titled ‘Mazhaiyum Ilayaraja’ vum playing rain themed film songs composed by acclaimed music composer Ilayaraja.

In one of the news cards published by Sun News it said that the weather in Chennai is now akin to Kodaikanal.

Another DMK-friendly media ‘India Glitz’ too romanticized the plight showing children jumping into subways brimming with water.

 

Earning the ire of people, these media outlets later started showing places which have been worst affected like Kolathur, T. Nagar, Alwarpet, etc. Some of the journalists plunged themselves into the waters to show how they’re on the ground and covering the flood situation in Chennai.

While these outlets claim themselves to be torchbearers of democracy questioning the government at the Centre, they’ve refrained from asking tough questions to the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. The MK Stalin government on the other hand has been trying to shift the blame on the previous AIADMK regime saying that he would investigate the irregularities under the Centre’s Smart City scheme. Minister for Municipal Administration, Urban and Water Supply K. N. Nehru rubbed off responsibilities saying that they’ve been only in power for 6 months and when asked about why canal desilting work was not completed.

Time and again, Chennai has been deluged whenever there is mild to heavy rains during the monsoons. While rampant urbanization is to blame, it is being aided by the politicians and authorities in power. Buildings are constructed in marshlands and lakes which act as sponges absorbing storing water. Corporation officials and contractors who lay roads give no emphasis to planning while laying roads and storm water drains. New roads are built on top of the existing roads without scrapping them off leaving the settlements on either sides of the road to go down creating a low lying area. Storm water drains get blocked as they don’t get desilted on time. Some of them get converted to drainage canals due to non-maintenance.

But none of the media have managed to make the DMK government accountable by posing these questions. It looks like their pens and cameras only point towards Delhi whenever they want to thump their chests about democracy, accountability, and other jargons which they often mouth.

All this only makes it conspicuous that they are no different from the ‘Godi Media’ they accuse the media in the north of.

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