The sustained attacks on Banwarilal Purohit, the Governor of Tamil Nadu, by various political outfits got a new twist on Saturday as a senior BJP leader described it as the fallout of the anti-corruption drive launched by the former to cleanse the system ruined by 50 years of Dravidian rule while a veteran writer with Dravidian leanings described the same as a turf war by some educationists. .
“The Governor launched a mission to make Tamil Nadu free of corruption. The post of a vice-chancellor was being auctioned off at rates varying between Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore. We saw the arrest of a vice-chancellor who was caught red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 29 lakh from a candidate for appointing him as an assistant professor. We also saw how former vice-chancellors went scurrying and got anticipatory bails to escape from the ignominy of going to jail. The sound and fury being created in the name of Governor are all the birth-pangs of a new culture in Tamil Nadu,” said Raja on Saturday. He pointed out that how Governor Purohit appointed nine vice-chancellors of impeccable characters since he assumed charge of the State. A section of journalists in Chennai expressed their reservations and apprehension over the hijacking of the media by some of the political bigwigs to tarnish the name of the Governor for furthering their personal agenda including usurping of power by hook or by crook.
D Anbazhagan, editor, Makkal Seithimayam, a Tamil news portal which had brought out many shady deals perpetrated by the DMK and the AIADMK governments, said that the whole reports carried by Nakkheeran looked dubious. “This kind of modus operandi was unheard of in Tamil Nadu. What was published as investigative reports about Nirmala Devi and her escapades in the magazine Nakkheeran could not be qualified as journalism,” said Anbazhagan.
Early this year, Anbazhagan himself was arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police for a series of reports he had published on corruption practiced by one of the ministers from south west Tamil Nadu. “Nobody did come out to protest my arrest and imprisonment at that time. In fact some of the TV channels had reported that I am a fake journalist,” Anbazhagan told The Pioneer.
He pointed out that R R Gopal was not a journalist but a published of a magazine which has a hidden agenda. “Please remember that he was acting as a wheeler dealer during the kidnapping of Kannada film actor Raj Kumar by forest brigand Veerappan. We do not know for sure how much money was exchanged for releasing Raj Kumar from the hands of Veerappan,” said Anbazhagan.
The general view in Tamil Nadu is that the attacks unleashed on the Governor by the DMK and the media houses supporting the party is a proxy war against PM Modi.
“The real purpose seems to be to lead Tamil Nadu to a mid-term election and prevent the BJP from spreading its wings in Tamil Nadu. The BJP is not at all a threat or force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu. Hence the attacks on the Governor could be the handiwork of the powerful education mafia which has lost an avenue of income because of the Raj Bhavan’s uncompromising stance against corruption,” said Anbazhagan.
