Thursday, 23rd December, 2021 has been a rare good day for Tamizh Hindutvadis, or ‘Sanghis’ as we call ourselves. A Goondas case foisted onto a Socio-Political commentator Kishore K Swamy on the basis of a few tweets and hazy claims of ‘abusive comments’ against women has been quashed by the High Court. He had been in jail for over six months. Prominent Nationalist youtuber Maridhas Malaichamy, jailed on a manufactured ‘forgery’ case from 2020 which was used as a pretext to keep him in jail after the High Court quashed another Goondas case against him for a tweet, was also granted bail by the Madurai bench. Further, Shibin, a young proud Hindu arrested from Kanyakumari for tweets, was also given bail and will be home with family for the holidays. Thought/speech/political dissidence merits arrest in Tamil Nadu these days while several criminals sit in the legislature as MLAs.
There have been numerous clarion calls in mainstream Indian and International media regarding free speech curbs and burgeoning ‘fascism’ due to arrests of persons dubbed ‘activists’. What is sauce for the goose in this case is certainly not sauce for the gander; we have seen arrests of prominent Hindutva leaning journalists in non-BJP states and no one bats an eyelid. The elite media screams intolerance when the proletariat (dubbed ‘Hindutva mob’) voices opposition to flagrantly false and inherently xenophobic statements by ‘unbiased’ media/celebrities or uber rich influencers whine about feeling unsafe/attacked. The same crowd is completely mum when a mob with sticks and weapons forces a business to bring down an innocuous, lighthearted video featuring the hereditary upper caste INC heir, or indeed, when a different kind of mob gets on the streets to riot and call for beheading based on facebook posts. This is of course all of a piece with the prevalent ethics of the day which deem a crime notice-worthy only if the victim and perpetrator belong to select identity groups.
This is the backdrop against which Maridhas and Kishore have been arrested; not a peep about democracy and freedom of expression from the so called unbiased media. Maridhas was arrested for the following deleted tweet:
In the tweet he starts by asking a rhetorical question – Is Tamil Nadu turning into another Kashmir? – and proceeds to say ‘If there is freedom here to create a group that can indulge in large scale treachery against the nation, then there are possibilities of large scale plotting also. Separatist forces should be suppressed’
Now, it must be understood that this tweet was made due to several TN SM handles snidely and even directly lauding and celebrating the horrific copter accident where the DCS Shri Bipin Rawat and several bravehearts lost their lives. These are too numerous to list; This youtube video by Einstein and Agathiyar catalogues quite a few. There are worse instances, like this video in a popular Tamil YouTube channel where an ‘activist’ Piyush Manush commits blood libel and demonizes the Indian Army, accuses army men of massacres and mass rapes, spreads lies about NIA etc. One must remember that with the Rajiv Gandhi murder and the RSS office bombing in 1993, as well as several small incidents like this bomb blast, Tamil Nadu is definitely prey to such separatist sentiments via this propaganda. Many terrorists apprehended in India hail from Tamil Nadu. It’s shocking that instead of so much as reprimanding persons making the offensive posts and seditious videos – perhaps because most of these persons are ideologically aligned with the DMK – the ruling party and their police arm decided to go for influencers who had issued an important warning about the dire consequences of nurturing separatism.
The arrest of Shri Maridhas has gotten national attention but is not the first arrest of a nationalist for ideology related tweets. A few months ago, a right-wing social media influencer Kishore K Swamy was arrested for sedition in the dead of the night; purportedly for ‘defamation’ of DMK leaders. Following are the headlines; it must be noted that left wing/congress supporters and influencers are branded ‘Activists’ as though they are politically neutral, but nationalist activists and commentators are always branded ‘BJP supporters’ or ‘Right Wing’.
The above poster from DMK family owned business Sun News says the following:
| Youtuber Kishore K Swamy Arrested! Youtuber Kishore K Swamy has been arrested for spreading slanderous comments regarding leaders on Social Media! Complaint that wrong viewpoints were registered about Arignar Anna, Kalaignar (Karunanidhi), and TN CM Stalin, and for abusive words towards female journalists. |
Following are a sampling of the tweets:
Kishore also destroyed the façade of unity and decency surrounding the Dravidian movement by tweeting about infighting in the highest levels; this infighting became so ugly that the ‘leaders’ and the famous poet Bharatidasan attacked each other with the worst personal taunts involving the ladies of each other’s families. He further qualified every tweet by referring to the source of the information:
Kishore tweeted highly unsavory quotes of EVR that demean the celebrated epic of the Tamils, the Silapadikaram:
by sharing statistics on Dalit Empowerment, he also highlighted that the image EVR and the Dravidian parties have created that they are the champions of the downtrodden is faux.
Kishore K Swamy is a salty character, not exactly endearing to all factions of society. He has undeniably used politically incorrect and unparliamentary language on many occasions.
However, trash talk comes naturally to the other side to the highest levels. Sitting MP Thol Tirumavalan called for the end of Sanatana Dharma and said that Hindu women are considered prostitutes therein; INC MP Jothimani called for stoning the PM while A Raja of DMK attacked he former CM EPS’s mother in a derogatory way regarding his paternity. DMK supporter and poet Vairamuthu has over 10 #metoo charges of actual sexual harassment and abuse against him but has been left untouched. As for abusive language, it is enough to see the replies from the so-called Dravidian stock under prominent Lady BJP members such as Ms. Gayathri Raghuram or Ms. Khushboo Sundar; Mr. Kishore’s comments pale in comparison to the hate and sexually tinged abuse in the replies. No action at all against these flagrant offenders. In contrast, the Goondas act was thrown on Kishore K Swamy who was jailed over 6 months for tweets.
The champions of free speech have not opened their mouths about these frivolous arrests; actual acts of Fascism designed to punish citizens for sharing facts about the ruling party.
In fact, In July 2021, citizens in TN received a solid declaration of commitment AGAINST free speech from the DGP, Tamil Nadu. Note that in the true spirit of fascism, the tweet disallows replies:
The above notice starts with hyperbole about Social Media and news media which it calls the 4th pillar of democracy. The notice goes on to say that some post ‘defamatory’ views criticizing the elected government and/or disturb peace by criticizing religions on Social Media for ‘self-advertisement’. The notice says that such people cause law and order problems and threatens them with arrest irrespective of gender! In view of the arrests of dissenters of one ideology alone, everyone knew how this would end; twitter users had analyzed the import of the notice nicely:
The public on both sides have no illusions whatsoever regarding this notice by the new DGP of Tamil Nadu, who, as noted by the Twitterati, reports directly to CM MK Stalin. The DMK supporters, so called ‘rationalists’ and ‘free speech enthusiasts’, in one voice, laud this stifling of Hindutvadis; a stifling justified by the usual smears – bigots, casteists, fascists, cow piss drinkers etc.- used to invalidate Hindutvadis.
The Tamil Language media and some English dailies such as The Hindu pay lip service to free speech and are ever ready to start a media glitz in support of the odd Kashmiri terrorist or Naxal Sympathizer. It would not have been surprising if they had remained mum about the Arrest of Maridhas and the attempt to curb his voice; After all, as already mentioned, Indian mainstream media is famous for classifying crimes and ‘threats to democracy’ as noteworthy only if the victim and perpetrators belong to specific identity groups. But what is mind blowing – and proof that the Tamil media functions, for most part, as an arm of the DMK – is the fact that they issued a press release endorsing and welcoming the arrest!
With media captured by the ruling party, it is not surprising that DMK supporters are a frenzied lot – rather than looking into a claim or examining an issue rationally, they have a juvenile ‘us vs them’ attitude best expressed through tweets such as this; where a so-called ‘dravidian stock’ handle exults at this shameful press release and takes pleasure that ’Sangis’ (the abhorred ‘other’) are ‘lamenting’ media bias.
One may wonder why the DMK is so sensitive specifically about Social Media posts that highlight separatist forces in Tamil Nadu, and the separatist antecedents of the DMK. The DMK is playing a dangerous double game. A Dharmic government would have the welfare of society as a primary goal. The goal of DMK has always been to hold on to the reins of power at any cost; they achieve this by sowing seeds of disgruntlement within Tamizhians with respect to their standing in India, pitching Tamizhians against the rest of India, and by supporting separatist activists and issuing separatist tropes
To this end, they have been referring to the Central government as ‘Union Government’ by willfully misrepresenting the constitution. They did this under the guise of ‘healthy federalism’. Their own minister Ponmudi has said that the CM will no longer entertain the words ‘Jai Hind’ !
Spokesperson Constantine Ravindran has declared that certain problematic social media influencers will be taught a lesson in a chilling video where he says he would maim dissenters who criticize the DMK in an ‘unsubstantiated manner’ showing a hand gesture that implies cutting with scissors.
Meanwhile, the current Tamil CM himself has himself issued shocking separatist statements that he has later taken back. In the clip from March, 2018, he says he would welcome formation of a Dravida Nadu consisting of Southern states and hopes for such a development. Even Kashmiri leaders have not made such statements. Six months later; perhaps because his words went pan-India more than anything else, he makes a U-Turn and says that Arignar Anna had given up the demand for a separate Dravida Nadu but that people are ‘spreading propaganda’ that he wants/welcomes Dravida Nadu.
In this poisonous speech, A sitting MP and the CM’s sister proudly says that there was doubt if the Prime Minister would be safe if he sets foot in Tamil nadu, though he travels all over the world, and for this reason, he had take a copter between two locations in Chennai; and that ‘Thalabathi’ (her brother and the sitting CM) is responsible for this fear when the Prime Minister comes to Tamil Nadu.
This sort of quasi-separatist rhetoric has kept the DMK in power (at least on ideological grounds) but has also resulted in a couple of generations of weaponized citizenry who are set against the idea of a Tamil Nadu that snugly fits within the Indian Republic; as long as the DMK and its ideology hold Tamil Nadu captive through Media control, this group will only get bigger and more dangerous; a bigger group will also foster violent elements.
The wide eyed woke main stream media has simply ignored even the terrible human rights violations, rapes and murders carried out by TMC on innocent, mostly oppressed-class voters simply for exercising their franchise. Not a single human interest story, not a single vigil by the usual ‘upholders of democracy’. Since Hindu lives are so cheap, Hindu liberty is even cheaper – National media has only praise for the DMK government, they call this emerging fascist and quasi-separatist state a champion of free speech and good governance. The quashing of the cases is in part due to an unbiased judge;not a given in every case.
Shri H Raja, senior RSS/BJP reader was jailed for protesting outside Bharathiar University and released today; Senior BJP Leader Shri Kalyanaraman remains in jail on flimsy pretexts. Egregious attempts to silence and smear pro-Hindu voices are ubiquitous in Tamil Nadu under the aegis of the DMK.
