With the shelving of the appointment of Manikandan Boopathi as CEO of Kalvi TV, the TN Dravidian stock government has made it clear it needs people like Dindigul Leony, Suba Veerapandian genre who are known for indecent comments and Hindu phobic rhetoric are preferred over merit and experience.
TN education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamoizhi said the appointment of Manikandan Boopathi as CEO of Kalvi TV has been shelved. He said “Manikandan was chosen after due process after shortlisting 11 out of 79 applicants. Now in difference to apprehensions expressed from certain quarters about his ideological background, it is put on hold. New one will be appointed”.
These are clear signals that people who can toe party lines without being critical would be preferred over people with merit, exposure and experience. Branding people as right-winger, RSS men, Sanghi by pro-government DMK media in selecting and rejecting candidates is not a healthy one.
The DMK government appointed Dindigul Leony, known for double entendre, sexist remarks, as chairman of Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation spoke in an election campaign meeting in 2021 “In a cowshed, people use a milking machine for foreign cows. These days, women drink milk from foreign cows because of which they have put on weight. Those days, a woman’s hip resembled the number 8 [had curves]. When she lifted her child, the little one stayed put on the hip. But now they’ve become like a barrel because of which women cannot carry their children on their hips”.
There has been acceptance that he is unfit for the post and questions are raised over the criteria set for giving a post to people like him. Opposing his appointment, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss urged the TN government to withdraw his appointment. In a Twitter post, he said the State government must appoint a qualified educationalist to head the institution. Leoni has been continuously making derogatory remarks against women. Appointing such a person as head, is an insult to the post”.
At a public gathering held on May 18, 2022 in Ponneri, Tiruvallur district on the one-year achievement of the DMK government, Leoni said that Chief Minister MK Stalin was responsible for a Dravidian revolution by elevating a member of the Dalit community that once carried slippers on their heads, to a Chennai Mayor post. The casteist slur received strong condemnation from human rights activists who called his comments irresponsible and demanded that DMK remove him from the party.
In a recent function Leony has made disparaging comment on the Hindu marriage rituals, using half bag of firewood in the havan kund. He also made indecent remarks against Hindu’s spiritual beliefs.
DMK government recent appointment of Suba Veerapandian to the Advisory committee to TNT and ESC is again not surprising. Suba Vee as he is known, is renowned for his anti-Hindu speeches particularly targeting the Brahmin community.
Journalist Praveen “ if the police say Kanal Kannan’s speech would flare up communal clashes, the speech of the Leony, Subavee kind are in what standard acceptable one? Leony should be arrested immediately on the same grounds.
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