‘Kalaignar’ follows ‘Vijay’

Readers! Please do not mistake the sub-title as referring to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamil actor. This is about two TV Channels, DMK’s (or MK’s) “Kalaignar TV” and Star Group’s “Vijay TV”.

In a previous article titled, “Electronic Media and Hindu Sentiments”, we saw how Vijay TV stands foremost in denigrating the religious tradition and cultural heritage of Hindus and hurting their sentiments. Vijay TV’s talk show “Neeyaa Naanaa” (You or Me – Tum aur Mein) on the subject “Should the Mangalsutra be necessarily worn by women?” was shown as an example of the channel’s Machiavellian agenda of spoiling young Hindu minds.

Some individuals, including ‘Hindu Munnani’ Founder President Ramagopalan, registered their protests; magazines like ‘Vijayabaratham’ and ‘Hindu Voice’ and websites like www.tamilhindu.com and www.vijayvaani.com played a vital role in educating the people. Although a concerted effort was not made by Hindu organizations to mobilize people and conduct a protests demonstration on a large scale, the small scale protests registered by individual activists have had a considerable impact.

The message spread through the worldwide web in both Tamil and English, establishing that Vijay TV owned by a foreign Christian organization has been working on an evil agenda to destroy the cultural heritage of India by creating suspicions and questions in young Hindu minds about their own culture and tradition.

Readers may recall I mentioned about the legal action taken by Chennai based Advocate R. Subramaniam against Vijay TV and the program producer Mercury Creations. Since then a few significant and interesting things have happened, which warrant readers’ attention to understand the nefarious designs of the mainstream media and their mendaciousness and audaciousness in dealing with Hindu issues.

On Oct. 16, 2009 Advocate Subramaniam sent a legal notice to Vijay TV, Mercury Creations and Anchor Gopinath with copies to DGP Tamil Nadu and CoP Chennai. Vijay TV acknowledged on Oct. 28, 2009. On Nov. 21, its law firm Saikrishna Associates replied to Subramaniam, stoutly denying all charges made by Subramaniam, adding that the channel was in no way connected with the participants and would not be responsible for views expressed by participants of the show, and that they have not given any ‘verdict’ (for or against wearing Mangalsutra) at the end of the program.

Saikrishna Associates claimed that Vijay TV has great respects for Hindu religion and culture, as evidenced by their other programs such as ‘Krishna Leelaa’, ‘Sai Baba’, Swami Aiyappan’, etc. They conveyed readiness to face the case in the court at the expenses of Advocate Subramaniam. Meanwhile, as informed by our sources, Vijay TV management told Mercury Creations management that the issue was pursued only by a handful of Brahmins who would fall silent after a few days.      

In the meantime, Advocate Subramaniam registered a complaint with the Commissioner of Police requesting him to investigate the issue with the channel authorities and producers of the program. The CoP accepted the complaint and agreed to proceed after consulting legal officers.

As the news spread, and due to the pressure exerted by program sponsor M/s Lion Dates, and also due to fear that court proceedings might cause severe damage to its ‘reputation’, the channel decided to safeguard its ‘image’ built over a decade. Our sources reported that the channel authorities had approached Kalaignar TV for help and support, as it is owned by the first family of the ruling party. To prove our information right, Kalaignar TV shot a debate on “Is Mangalsutra a social necessity or a religious identity?” on Dec. 31, 2009 for its program “Karuththu Yuddham” (Battle of Opinions).

The same day, Advocate Subramaniam had explained to Kalaignar TV’s program conductor Shanmuga Sundaram about the ire faced by Vijay TV for telecasting a program on the same subject and how it necessitated the legal action being pursued by him. He told him that Kalaignar TV’s telecast on the same subject would add insult to the injury caused by Vijay TV and requested him to make arrangements for cancellation of the telecast. As his request fell on deaf ears, Subramaniam sent a legal notice to Kalaignar TV also on Jan. 4, 2010.

High Court’s dismissal

On Jan. 11, 2010, Advocate Subramaniam submitted a Criminal Original Petition (Cr.O.P. No:812 of 2009) to the High Court of Judicature, Madras, against the State represented by Commissioner of Police, Star Vijay TV, Antony – proprietor of Mercury Creations, Gopinath – anchor for Vijay TV, Director General of Police, and Kalaignar TV as the order of respondents. In his Cr.O.P, Advocate Subramaniam prayed for an order from the High Court for necessary and immediate investigations by the Commissioner of Police and restraining Kalaignar TV from telecasting the said show.

When the petition was posted on Jan. 18 for admission, Hon’ble Justice Raghupathi straightaway dismissed it on the ground that there was no prima facie evidence to show that the religious and cultural sentiments of Hindus were hurt by the said program. The judge observed, “Participants have conveyed only their opinions in the said program. There is no prima facie evidence to show that the TV channel has deliberately offended the religious sentiments of a particular community.” This incident stands testimony to the fact that as long as the state is ruled by Dravidian parties, Hindus would not get justice anywhere, be it bureaucracy, police, or court of law! 

Lack of cohesion              

Unfortunately, no organization barring a couple of magazines and websites, specific individuals and a lonely advocate, came forward to take up this issue and fight against the concerned TV channels. One can only wonder at the lack of initiative and focus from the organizations right from the beginning in this particular issue.

Advocate Subramaniam deserves praise and appreciation for the efforts he has taken to fight the media giants single-handedly, running from police and court, at the age of 70! Despite the dismissal by the High Court, the ‘70 year old youngster’ asserts confidently that he would even go the Supreme Court and fight till the last.    

Unlike Hindu society which remains totally indifferent to such individuals and does not extend any kind of support or cooperation, the minority communities are agile, precocious, proactive, and cohesive in dealing with adversaries. Let us see how Muslims have handled a similar issue with the same Vijay TV.

Success story of Muslims

After this setback, or probably to stage-manage a drama for Hindu ‘consumption’, Vijay TV produced a debate, “Is it necessary for Muslim women to wear the Purdah?” and announced that the program would be telecast on Jan. 17, 2010. Immediately ‘Tamil Nadu Thowheedh Jamaat’ shot off separate letters to the Commissioner of Police and Vijay TV.

In the letter to the CoP, the Jamaat said, “This program would certainly hurt our religious sentiments and give us unnecessary trauma. Programs like this being conducted with participants lacking knowledge on Islamic affairs would create hatred against Islam and Muslims in the minds of people belonging to other communities. It would be better for the media houses to avoid programs in which one particular community’s customs and traditions are debated by other community people. For example, we ourselves would condemn Muslims taking subjects such as, ‘Hindus wearing Tilaks on their forehead’ or ‘Christians performing weddings by exchange of rings’, for debate.

So, we request the Commissioner of Police to interfere in this issue and stop the telecast of the said program by Vijay TV. We demand that the police should take action and file cases, under appropriate sections of IPC, against Vijay TV and the producer of the said program for making Islam as the subject of debate by other communities. We have also annexed a copy of our letter to Vijay TV. We would like to reiterate that, in the event of Vijay TV telecasting the said program, Muslims will rise in agitation and that the police and the government must take responsibility of its consequences.”

This letter was personally handed over to the Commissioner of Police on Jan. 11, 2010; the Tamil Nadu Thowheedh Jamaat ensured a good attendance of Muslims in front of the Police Commissionerate at that time.

The same day, Thowheedh Jamaat handed over a similar kind of a letter to Vijay TV. It clearly stated that, “On behalf of Muslim community, we request you to kindly stop the telecast of this program. If needed you may arrange for a live telecast of the debate on Purdah and we are ready to participate.

We hope that you would respect the religious sentiments of Muslims and refrain from telecasting this program. In the event of your telecasting this program without heeding our demand, please be informed that your office would be surrounded and picketing and protest demonstrations would be conducted.  

If you organize for a free and fair debate, we are ready to give reasonable answers and explanations to all sorts of questions. So, it would be sensible for you to organize such a debate. Thanks.”

Due to the pressure exerted by the police and also the fear caused by the letter from Thowheedh Jamaat, Vijay TV suspended the telecast! The channel contacted the Jamaat, gave assurance it would not telecast the program and conveyed sincere apologies for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims through the ‘promo.’ The Jamaat suspended its protest demonstration. Though there are a dozen Muslim organizations in Tamil Nadu, the issue was taken up by only one, but the entire community stood behind it as a cohesive unit and the result was a success. (Ref: http://www.tntj.net/?p=9594 ).

Approach and execution

Readers would understand the difference of attitude, approach and execution of a mission by Hindus vis-à-vis Muslims. Though it is true that the government, police and judiciary are not considerate to Hindus, it is also true that Hindus don’t unite for a cause and handle issues in an appropriate manner.

Muslims were proactive, took initiative even before the telecast, approached the issue in a dynamic manner and achieved success with just two letters. Hindu organizations never had an inkling that a program on Mangalsutra was produced; didn’t agitate even after the telecast; could not get an apology; could not prevent telecast of the same program on another channel; didn’t cooperate and support the few individuals who protested and fought against the channel; and left a 70 year old advocate in the lurch.

As the Hindu majority is wanting, the evil designs of Vijay TV continue; sponsoring ‘Hindu’ companies also brazenly continue support to the channel, thereby selling their own religion; SUN TV is continuing its anti-Hindu program (Nijam – Truth) projecting lies and false stories; other channels are vying with each other in showcasing anti-Hindu ideologies at every opportunity. Hindus continue watching such programs and participating in them, without discarding the sponsor companies and boycotting their products, without ignoring those programs and without any feeling pride in their religion and culture. 

The final stand

Although the situation is pitch-dark, a silver lining is visible. Anantha Padmanaban and Tamilisai Soundararajan have been articulate in expressing their opinions in favour of Hindu culture, while participating in the said program by Kalaignar TV. Participating in such programs on hostile channels has its own disadvantages and demerits. Most times, the Hindu viewpoints are censored or hidden during editing, which often makes Hindu-favouring participants cut a sorry figure. In the event of not being able to edit the Hindu-centric views, the telecast of such programs is suspended. SUN TV’s “Nerukku Ner” program has been off air many times. Most anchors are Hindu haters. So it would be better if sponsoring companies and their products are boycotted.

There are two ways to restrain the media and bring it in line - agitation and boycott. Adapting both simultaneously would be beneficial. If the Hindu community cannot achieve this, there is no point in calling itself the majority community. Let Hindus rise to the occasion! 

Tailpiece: The Christian channel’s strategy of denigrating Hindu culture through an Islamic drama is similar to the Sonia Congress’ strategy of destroying Hindus through Muslim appeasement!

The writer is a freelancer