Tamil Nadu BJP crackdowns on loudmouths

CHENNAI: State BJP President K Annamalai cracked down on some loudmouths in his party on Tuesday and came up with an overall ban on functionaries and leaders, other than official spokespersons, giving interviews to YouTube channels without the prior permission of their media wing head Ranganayakalu following a few unsavoury developments in social media.

The president of Other States and Overseas Tamil Development wing, Gayathri Raghuram, who was removed from all posts she held in the State BJP, including Art and Culture President, for a period of  six months, was accused of breaching party discipline and indulging in activities that brought a bad name to the party.

Making the announcement, Annamalai also instructed party office-bearers and cadre to have no truck with her with regard to party affairs, evoking a strong reaction for Raghuram, who tweeted, ‘But people who love me will talk to me. No one can stop that. I will work for the Nation with suspension.’

Two other State functionaries, Minorities wing president Daisy Saran and OBC wing general secretary Surya Siva are also facing the music after an audio clip of their tasteless telephonic conversation was leaked in social media. The conversation is peppered with cuss words as the two functionaries actually abuse each other.

Annamalai said State vice president and head of the disciplinary committee, Kanaga Sabapathi, would enquire into the episode and submit a report in a week’s time, until which Surya Siva had been advised not to take part in any party event.

Raghuraman, who tweeted ‘He always wanted me out from day one. I will come back stronger,’ had been the talk of the town after she complained on Twitter that she was not taken to the Kashi Tamil Sangamam and that she was upset about it because she was the president for Tamil development in other States and overseas.

Then she started attacking trolls from her own party and also said that the Nilgiris district was once a bastion of the BJP at a time when Annamalai was there. She alleged that an attempt was being made to project that Nilgiris came under the party’s spell on in the past two years, which were an indirect attack on the State President

Then she came out strongly against the abusive talk of Surya Siva and created a hashtag #standwithDaisy, saying the threat that was openly handed out to Daisy Saran was frightening. She also tweeted that money was being paid to get Likes and Retweets by leaders and a host of other things against her party.

Always active on social media, Raghuraman regularly takes on trolls and others who make unpalatable comments about her and voices her opinion on a wide range of issues, often ending up as a common target of attack for social media users.

The abuses hurled on Daisy Saran by Surya Siva, were, however, too demeaning for women in general and even the channel that put it on YouTube had to beep the swear words and obscene phrases that almost made the entire conversation.

Besides throwing some light on the way in which people got posts and positions in the BJP, the conversation saw Surya Siva handing out a direct threat to the woman leader telling that he would kill her.

Besides these specific incidents, many BJP functionaries had been speaking to YouTube anchors, expressing their out of the normal views. For example, Alisha Abdullah, a woman bike racer who joined the BJP recently said that by learning Hindi women can ward off potential rapists by using swear words and also arguing with them in their language if they were caught in a dangerous situation in north India.

That raised a storm in social media with some people even digging up old Instagram posts of Alisha to expose that she had been fraudulently posing as a doctor when she had not studied medicine at all.

Perhaps it was all those embarrassments that prompted Annamalai to come out with the strict  ‘no interview’ diktat, in which he acknowledged the use of social media in exposing the ‘lies of opposition parties’ and also propagating the views and philosophies of the BJP.

Since the personal views expressed by the individuals, speaking on behalf of the party, were mistaken as the BJP’s line of thought, the people were getting a wrong impression about the BJP, he said, justifying the ban on interviews.