Everyone knows the popular story of an elephant and six
blind men who were asked to touch different parts of the animal and asked to
say how the animal looked like, and everyone of them narrating different
perceptions except the reality. We were reminded of this story on November 12,
while going through the English dailies published from Chennai reporting on the
reception accorded to DMK Treasurer Thalapathi M.K.Stalin and Parliamentary
Party leader Thiru T.R.Baalu, on their return from New York, Geneva and London,
after successfully carrying out the tasks of presenting Kalaignar’s petition on
Eelam Tamils to the Deputy Secretary General of the UNO, the Chairperson of the
UNHRC and attending World Tamils conference in London, and the felicitations
meeting held in the evening on the previous day November 11.
The ‘Deccan Chronicle’ reported:
“Support to UPA on condition: MK
DMK President M.Karunanidhi on Sunday said his Party’s
support to the UPA would depend on Delhi backing the resolution of his ‘Tamil
Eelam Supporters’ Organisation’ demanding referendum among Tamils living in Sri
Lanka and abroad to help arrive at a political solution for the island nation.
The assertion indicates hardening of his relations with the
UPA in general and Congress in particular even as rumours gathered strength
that the Dravidian Stalwart has already begun moves towards a new coalition for
the 2014 Lok Sabha poll……….”
There was another report in the daily written by their
political expert (!) K.S.Jayaseelan from New Delhi, which stated:
“DMK fuming at PM’s adviser calling on CM to discuss
development
Cong, DMK drifting apart?
Congress is upset with DMK for having deputed Stalin to the
UN for submitting its TESO resolution
….
‘The Times of India’ reported:
“DMK links support to UPA with Lankan Tamil referendum
The DMK, UPA’s key ally at the Centre, on Sunday held out a
veiled threat to the Congress-led regime saying its continued support hinged on
the government prevailing upon the United Nations ………
In another development reflecting frosty ties with Congress,
DMK leaders stayed away from a feast hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in
New Delhi in the runup to the winter session of Parliament…
….still a long way to go,” said Karunanidhi, who has been
known to periodically step up rhetoric on the issue. On Saturday, he had openly
condoled the death of Nadarajah Mathinthiran, a former LTTE commander
assassinated in France last Thursday…..”
And, of course, ‘The New Indian Express’ which had been
turned into undeclared official daily of ADMK, had its own version under the
headline ‘Stalin show raises eyebrows’ containing their usual trash whenever
they write about the DMK and Kalaignar.
‘The Times of India’ in particular and all these dailies in
general, seem to have an exclusive DMK Desk mandated to manufacture some story
or the other everyday discrediting the DMK
and floating speculations of rift with the UPA. They published a story
on 11-11-2012,
the day on which Thiru. Stalin returned from abroad. T.R.Baalu returned to New
Delhi the previous day to attend the meeting of Parliamentary Standing
Committee for Railways, for which he was the Chairman. On Sunday he returned to
Chennai to join with Stalin on his arrival excusing himself from attending PM’s
dinner. The ‘story’ scripted by Karthik s and published in TOI on the day is as
under:
“ DMK may boycott PPs dinner in Delhi”
The DMK, now the largest Congress ally, is likely to boycott
Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs dinner party slated for Sunday, party sources
said. The dinner is being hosted by the Prime Minister for the first time after
the Trinamool Congress withdrew support to the government.
On Sunday, representatives of the alliance parties of the
ruling UPA-2 coalition will meet at the PMs home in New Delhi. But the DMKs representative and parliamentary
party leader T R Baalu is likely to absent himself from the key gathering.
Coming close on the heels of the exit of Mamata Banerjees
TMC from the UPA, the DMK absenting itself from the dinner could prove a huge
embarrassment for the Congress.
With the government gearing to face the opposition onslaught
during the winter session of Parliament on several issues, including foreign
direct investment in multi-brand retail and hike in diesel price, the PM hosted
a dinner for Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday. Yadavs son
and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was also present, along with
parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath and National Conference leader Farooq
Abdullah. The winter session of Parliament begins on November 22. Baalu, who
reached Delhi from UK on Friday night, has been summoned to Chennai by his
party leader.
It is significant that the DMKs decision to boycott the
dinner comes in the wake of remarks by Union minister of state in the PMO V
Narayanasamy in an interview to a Tamil magazine that the ruling AIADMK had
been more supportive of the controversial Kudankulam nuclear power project than
his own ally, the DMK. Though the minister had hurriedly clarified he had been
misquoted, DMK chief M Karunanidhi had been quick to point out that his party
had been consistent in its support of the project.
The DMK decision also comes a day after the PMs adviser T K
A Nair called on chief minister J Jayalalithaa in an apparent effort to speed
up some key central projects being implemented with states assistance. The
meeting was described as rare and significant by officials.
Our relationship with the Congress has not been so good in
recent times. They are not treating us like a valuable partner and the distance
between the parties has grown, a DMK
leader said, pointing out that DMK leaders had avoided meeting the PM when he
was passing through Chennai a couple of months ago.”
While publishing such a big story, this daily and ‘Deccan
Chronicle’ did not bother to make the elementary verification whether dinner
would happen or not. This same story of DMK boycotting PM’s dinner was repeated
in the subsequent days also. But actually, the proposed dinner was cancelled by
the PMO owing to the absence of NCP leader and senior Union Minister Shard
Pawar in Delhi. So that part of the
story is simply nonsense. Union Minister of State V.Narayanasamy had already
clarified on his comment on Kudankulam plant and hence that part was beating
the bush again. And as themselves had said the PM’s adviser T K A Nair called
on Jayalalitha in an effort to speed up some key central projects implemented
in the state. Kalaignar had criticized Jayalalitha for halting ongoing works in
infrastructure projects implemented by the previous DMK rule with assistance of
the Centre. He is not a mean politician as these dailies try to portray by
saying that he was upset over the PM’s envoy meeting the CM for expediting the
projects, the costs of which were soaring due to delay in execution.
The same daily on the very same day they published this
story also reported the arrogance of the ADMK government in stopping the works
of yet another highway project:
“State tells NHAI to stop Trichy project
The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday ordered stoppage of
work on the 374-crore Trichy-Karaikudi national highway project. This is the
second major infrastructure project implemented by the Centre to be stopped by
the state government. Earlier this year, work on the 1,800-crore Chennai
Port-Maduravoyal elevated expressway was stopped citing deviations in its
alignment along the Cooum.
Citing objections and opposition from local farmers, who
apprehended loss of irrigation water sources, a senior engineer of the Water
Resources Organisation asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)
officials at the site to stop work on Saturday.
The project, which would link six national highway stretches
in the region, involves construction of a two-lane path with paved shoulders in
the Trichy-Karaikudi section of NH-210. The 84km stretch includes 25km of
Trichy bypass on NH-67. Launched in 2010, the project was to be completed by May 14, 2013.
On 14-11-2012, the TOI published two ‘stories’ on DMK for about
half a page, “PC meets MK in bid to iron out crease : But DMK chief
Non-Committal “ and “With Lanka rhetoric, Karunanidhi charts poll course”. As
usual they write their own perceptions or wishful thoughts as if told to them
by ‘a senior DMK leader’, ‘a Congress functionary’, ‘sources’ etc., taking
cover under the protection to media (given in good faith for objective
reporting) that sources need not be disclosed.
First of all, there is absolutely no need for any daily or
periodical to make hair-splitting news analysis or investigative reports about
the DMK and its leader Kalaignar. There is no leader in the country whose
functioning and affairs are as transparent as Kalaignar and there cannot be any
complaint that he was ever inaccessible to the media. Almost everyday he
releases detailed statements on developments and problems of the state, country
and people. But most of these dailies either black out or give cursory space
for his statements of facts, but on the contrary publish lengthy unfound and baseless
‘stories’ on DMK manufactured in their editorial desks. The outcome of this
sort of dubious function was their above said reports on the public meeting and
reception on 11-11-2012,
which were far from truth. The blind persons who touched the elephant and
narrated their wrong perceptions were visually handicapped, but the journalists
working in these dailies seemed to be intellectually castrated to think only in
the think in line with the political policy of their owners.
The Times of India repeated the same concocted story on the subsequent days in two more
lengthy reports on the meeting of Union Minister Thiru P.Chidambaram with
Kalaignar and another lengthy story as if Kalaignar is charting course for
alliance in the next Parliamentary elections in 2014 with its ‘Lankan
rhetoric’.
The veteran Communist leader late EMS Namboodripad once
addressing a press meeting in Chennai and patiently answering the rubbish
questions of scribes for more than a hour, finally advised them ‘you are all
very young journalists. You must read the history of communist movement, the programme of the Party and atleast our
periodicals before you ask us such questions. On the contrary all of you read anti
communists literatures and make up your mind that doing a disservice to
yourselves and to your readers.”
This advice of that great leader equally applied to the
present day journalists and their editorial boards. Most of them if not all
have no idea of the history of the Dravidian movement and Tamil Nadu politics,
the stand of DMK on various issues and they don’t even seem to read the Party’s
daily Murasoli or even the statements of Kalaignar faxed to them everyday.
Otherwise how can Tamils of India make a four column news
analysis that none of the major political parties in Tamil Nadu including the
DMK, ADMK, DMDK, MDMK and PMK had condemned the attack on Dalits in a village
in Dharmapuri district following the marriage of the caste Hindu girl with a Dalit
boy. Only on the previous day Kalaignar had released a question-answer statement
condemning the incident and urging the government to take action against the
culprits under PCR Act. The very heading they gave to the statement was ‘Should
Venmanis continue due to love of darlings’. Neither the editorial desk of the
daily seem to have gone through the statement nor the report in other papers.
Had they known the history of Tamil Nadu and the gory incident in Keezha
Venmani village in Tiruvarur district in the year 1967 in which 44 Dalits men,
women and children were burn to death by landlords, they would have understood
the depth of Kalaignar concern for the Dharmapuri incident now.
While these so called elitist English dailies concoct
stories like the above wantonly discrediting the DMK, they don’t dare to write
anything about this ruling party and its chaotic regime and they also take care
to cover up the shortcoming of the regime by not publishing the daily
statements of Kalaignar pointing out the mistakes of the regime. They claim to
be industry friendly but still they don’t publish anything about the ordeals of
the people, the industry and all fields of life due to unprecedented powercut
of 12 to 16 hours a day. Nor have they published any factual report on the
arrogance and petty mindedness of Jayalalitha in stopping the ongoing works as
much as 8 infrastructure projects the DMK government initiated with the
assistance of the Centre.
The DMK and Dravidian movement have grown in the past in
spite of hostile media and the party needs no backing of any daily. However,
these dailies should do justice to their readers and preserve journalistic
ethics.
