Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been accused recently of ignoring and barring access to journalists. Kejriwal is just dabbling in an art form that Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu had mastered over the years. The irony is that as Delhi closes its doors, Tamil Nadu is opening it wide, after years of ignoring the media. Gone are the days when it used to be a herculean task to reach an AIADMK party spokesperson.
In the past, reporters approaching the AIADMK office would always be redirected to Poes Garden (Jayalalithaa’s home and personal office), and more often than not, permission would be denied. If the AIADMK was conspicuous by its absence, the DMK would pick and choose who and what they would react to, even if they were more approachable than the ADMK.
The onslaught of TV channels both in English and in Tamil has forced both the Dravidian parties to take the media bull by its horns. The DMK recently created a panel of 13 spokespersons who will make regular appearances on TV news debates to present the party’s point of view on various issues. This comes a couple of months after the ruling AIADMK appointed a nine member panel to take part in similar debates.
Dravidian parties have realised the power of television medium and that it cannot be ignored any more. This is why most parties have designated spokespersons.
-M Gunasekaran, Senior Editor, Puthiya Thalamurai TV
Though there are more than half a dozen news channels in Tamil Nadu and most have news segments, till about three months ago, most debates and news reports had no representative from the AIADMK. “Party enthusiasts” and columnists like Avadi Kumar, Kasinatha Bharathi and Gowrishankar used to talk broadly on the party’s views, but they were never official representatives.
“The AIADMK supremo seems to have realized that these enthusiasts were not articulating the party’s position correctly and therefore came up with this list,” another senior journalist says.
CR Saraswathi, one of AIADMK’s newly appointed spokespersons acknowledges there was indeed a need to have the party’s voice in TV debates. “Few years ago media needed spokespersons only during elections, but now there are debates on a daily basis. It becomes important to counter the attempts to malign us,” she says.