Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) heavyweights, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and his sister, Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi, rallied behind Sriperumbudur MP and party treasurer T.R. Baalu at his book launch in Chennai on 23 January 2023 despite him facing fresh accusations of manipulating the 2G scam probe.
This book launch was also attended by writer Vairamuthu. Earlier this month, the CM unveiled ‘Maha Kavithai,’ a composition by #MeToo accused writer. He had shared the stage with P Chidambaram, former ISRO scientist Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, and actor Kamal Haasan (who allegedly kissed an underage actress nonconsensually).
Vairamuthu has been accused of sexual harassment by more than 15 women since 2018, with singer Chinmayi Sripada being the most vocal about it. The award-winning singer also shared that she was facing a work ban in the industry “for naming this poet as a molester in the MeToo movement.”
In 2021, Vairamuthu penned a song depicting a schoolgirl’s infatuation with a “grey-haired old poet”. This song, romanticizing paedophilia, featured a teenage actress.
In 2018, he cited a dubious source for calling Andal, the revered Hindu Alvar saint, a “dasi” (servant and a derogatory reference to sex workers) of Ranganathaswamy temple in Sri Rangam.
It is believed that Lord Ranganatha of Sri Ranganathaswamy temple married Andal, who later merged with the idol. Since Andal married Ranganatha, the presiding deity is called Rangamannar.
Vairamuthu has also opposed the need to build a temple for Sri Rama. In the video, speaking in an unknown and undated function, he presented a poem on the same old malicious Dravidianist trope:
Avatar means to descend from above, one not tainted by pregnancy. He does not need tools like indriyam (sense organs) or pregnancy and lands directly from above. So, if (Lord Rama) is an Avatar, then he was never born, and why does he need a birthplace? Or, if he was born to Dasharatha and Kaushalya, he is a human. If he is a human, then why does he need a temple?
Not surprisingly, his tone was far from nasty when he had to speak about Kavikko S. Abdul Rahman, the ex-chairman of the Waqf board in Tamil Nadu. Singing peans for Rahman, he tells the audience, “forget that he is a Muslim… All that he asks is to awaken the humanism inside the humans.”
Baalu’s book launch was also attended by N. Ram, who heads all the publications of The Hindu Group and is a vocal supporter of the DMK. Multiple personalities have called out his agenda-driven partisan reporting in the garb of ‘journalism’.
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