CPM's Kannada daily has a premature death

Kozhikode: The CPM’s second attempt to run a Kannada daily in the Tulu heartland of Kasargod to prevent the suge of fundamental politics has failed. The ‘Tulunadu Times’ evening daily inaugurated by general secretary Sitaram Yechury on August 15,  2015  was published for over a year before shutting down.

The daily was started targeting the Kannada- speaking people, who form 30 per cent of the population of Kasargod taluk. It was published by the party district committee with Mr M. Shankar Rai as the Editor and the LDF district convener P. Raghavan as the printer and publisher. According to sources, lack of media professionals resulted in the early death of the venture. “All major posts were filled by party supporters rather than professionals,” said a CPM leader.

Mr C.H. Kunhambu,   former Manjeshwaram MLA and prominent CPM leader in the Kannada belt,  cited financial problems. “It was published for more than a year. We are planning to resume its operation in July,” he told DC. But ‘Tulunadu Times’ ran into trouble after publishing a picture said to be that of Prophet Mohammed in October last.  Muslim organizations burned the paper and the Editor apologized  the next day. “It was not the reason for the shutdown. That grave error happened as a picture from a Kannada publication was copied, “explained Mr Kunhambu.

The majority of the Kannada publications in the area are being published by pro-RSS managements from Mangalore. On the other side, publications of Muslim managements too garnered space as a 'tit-for-tat' reply to Hindutva politics.