Tiger By The Tail

The Tiger is dead, but its tail continues to wag in Tamil Nadu’s politics. Well, we are talking  LTTE here. The latest to feel the heat over the LTTE connection is the Hindi web series The Family Man. Tamil parties and politicians deman­ded banning the streaming of Season Two of the Manoj Bajpayee-starrer on Amazon Prime. The reason: it shows Tamils in poor light, especially when it speaks of a nexus between “Tamil rebels and the ISI”, and one of its lead stars Samantha Ruth Akineni is portrayed as a Tamil rebel fighter (LTTE ?) out to take revenge (apparently on Indian security agencies). The 170-second trailer of the second season touched a raw nerve, with political leaders from Vaiko to Seeman alleging that it demeans Tamils by linking them to the Pakistani ISI.

Though the makers of the web series and the Chennai-born Samantha, who has also acted in several Tamil movies, urged protesters to watch the entire series before judging it, Tamil Nadu’s over-sensitive politicians are refusing to oblige. The directors of the web ­series pointed out that Season Two ­actually showcased many talents from Tamil Nadu, which would go down well with the Tamil audiences in spite of the language divide.

The web series was not the only issue of dissent over the vexed Sri Lankan Tamils issue and the LTTE, as poll allies the DMK and the Congress found themselves on opposing sides last week. After chief minister M.K. Stalin wrote to the President seeking the release of seven people convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, since they had served nearly 30 years in prison and the ­previous state government had invoked its powers under Article 161 and had recommended to the governor that they be released.

As the governor had neatly lobbed the ball to Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Stalin had little option but to write to the President. Also his letter was released on May 20, a day before the 30th anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, which needled the Congress even more. Its state ­president K.S. Alagiri said the convicts should serve out their entire life ­sentence in prison without any ­relaxation. Another Congress leader Americai Narayanand wondered why no Tamil party cared for the families of the 14 innocent local Tamils who had been killed along with Rajiv Gandhi in the bomb blast. Strangely, the release of these seven prisoners is one issue on which the DMK and the AIADMK are in agreement, while the Congress and the BJP happen to be on the same page by opposing their release.

By G.C. Shekhar in Chennai