Reporter’s Diary: DMK goes mute on Vairamuthu row

National award-winning lyricist and poet Vairamuthu did not receive any help from his ideological friends in DMK after a scheduled felicitation was called off, reportedly at the behest of the Centre-ruling BJP. 

A leading private university in the State capital had planned to confer an honourary doctorate on the lyricist this week, and that too in the presence of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. However, the plans came a cropper after the State unit of the BJP prevailed over the national high command and got the Minister’s visit cancelled, citing the lyricist’s controversial remarks about saint Aandal. 

The State unit of CPM took lead in issuing a statement condemning the BJP for getting the scheduled visit of the Minister cancelled through political intervention. However, the DMK, which had put its weight behind Vairamuthu even when the sexual harassment allegation against him was at its peak, has distanced itself from the issue this time. None of the party leaders has voiced concern about the incident that has affected the author who is widely considered to be one of its favourite. 

Similarly, though the university is owned by a Lok Sabha member who won on the DMK ticket, there has not been any comment from it over the issue. It is clear that the DMK does not want to be embroiled in a fresh controversy. The party leadership is learnt to have advised the functionaries to stay away from the issue, which whipped up a social media storm. There were also many questioning the honour being bestowed on a person named in #metoo case, that too by a union minister.