JOIN US A report in a Tamil bi-weekly that allegedly portrayed AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha as “beef eater” has sparked instant state-wide protests with her partymen demanding the withdrawal of the magazine’s latest issue and the arrest of its editor.
The Tamil bi-weekly “Nakkeeran,” which shot into fame in the mid-1990s’ during the slain forest brigand Veerappan’s abduction episodes, has yet again triggered a political controversy, this time with a cover story on the AIADMK supremo seeking to project her eating habits. Barely an hour after the magazine hit the stands on Saturday morning, enraged AIADMK partymen and volunteers protested before news stands, seizing copies of “Nakkeeran” and burnt them. A section of AIADMK activists turned emotional and pelted stones at the building housing “Nakeeran” at Royapettah, police said. The editor of the magazine, R R Gopal, was in the building at that time, but all staff members were later safely escorted out, sources said.
Meanwhile, Opposition leader and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi condemned the attack on “Nakkeeran” saying violence was not the way to resolve issues when those affected by the article could seek a “legal remedy”. However, AIADMK organising secretary and former minister C Ponnaiyan in a statement accused “Nakeeran” of “being in concert with Karunanidhi to deliberately publish such baseless and scurrilous articles against Jayalalitha with the sole intent to besmirch her fair name and that of her mentor M G Ramachandran (MGR) to the masses.”