Chennai: Shedding its benign face, the ruling DMK has begun to take on its critics by filing defamation cases. Close on the heels of Chief Minister MK Stalin and party veteran TR Baalu, MP, dragging BJP state president K Annamalai, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V Senthil Balaji on Monday filed not one but four libel suits against activist-vlogger 'Savukku' Shankar.
Most prominent in the Stalin Cabinet is Balaji, who deserted the sinking ship of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) of TTV Dhinakaran and defected to the DMK ahead of the 2021 assembly elections. He enjoys the Chief Minister's confidence so much that his portfolios have remained untouched in the recent reshuffle, despite criticism from anti-corruption activists and trade unions. His ministry presides over the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), engaged in the lucrative retail sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor. But, more than anything, he has helped the DMK conquer the Kongu region in western Tamil Nadu, which is traditionally seen as the hunting ground for the opposition AIADMK.
Savukku has turned into a bete noire for Balaji with his claims on the malpractices in the ministry, particularly the alleged corruption in TASMAC. If that was not enough to infuriate the minister, he had posted on Twitter that Balaji is the Eknath Shinde of the ruling DMK. While Annamalai had merely warned the DMK that there could be an Eknath Shinde in the DMK, Savukku has named Balaji as the one. “What TN BJP president Annamalai says is right. Senthil Balaji @V_Senthilbalaji may become TN's Eknath Shinde,” reads the post he had shared on Twitter sometime back.
No DMK minister, however, powerful, can be expected to rebel against the party leadership and the DMK's first family as any such move would be nipped in the bud. It is nothing less than blasphemy. No wonder Balaji has dragged Savukku to court.
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A former constable in the Vigilance Directorate, Shankar, had taken this pseudonym 'Savukku' meaning 'whip', after his suspension a decade earlier for releasing the audio tape of a conversation between two senior officials. In September, he was terminated from service after the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court sentenced him to six months imprisonment in a suo motu contempt case. However, he walked out of jail after the Supreme Court suspended his sentence.
He took the avatar of a whistle-blower with the release of the Radia Tapes in the 2G scam. Later on, his credibility took a beating as he seldom gave evidence for his purported exposes. “If he were a mainstream journalist, he would be asked for evidence. But, he is smart, knows what he is writing or speaking and does it deliberately,” says senior journalist M Kalayana Raman about the modus operandi of Savukku.
In his complaint, Balaji submitted that Savukku is “acting at the behest of his political enemies and personal animosity, has been running a smear campaign...by continuously making wild, false and defamatory statements with the sole intention to defame and tarnish his personal and professional reputation.” Furthermore, he provided the YouTube links wherein Savukku, in response to a question from the interviewer on whether DMK legislators would desert the party, says “(he) can easily pay Rs 50 crore per MLA and throw Rs 2,000 crore with ease.”
The other offences listed against Savukku are the allegations that Balaji is running all the TASMAC liquor bars across the state and that the DMK functionaries themselves are upset at this, organised looting by the sale of liquor at TASMAC shops well past the deadline of 10 pm, the proceeds of which are not accounted for and linking him in a murder case.
With the ruling DMK dragging adversaries and critics to the court, it appears to be a season of libel suits. But, it remains to be seen whether these are mere threats to silence opponents or would be pursued to their logical conclusion. And Savukku is known to switch loyalties like a chameleon.
