Mr Minister, a grain of truth in every joke ain’t good optics

CHENNAI: State local administration minister KN Nehru’s ability to crack someone up in public is a familiar story. Be it in the Assembly or public meeting, he has built a reputation of cheering up an audience. But the witty minister might have gone a tad overboard even by his own standards this week.

Speaking at a private function in his home-town Tiruchy, Nehru made a daring comment about a DSP that left his own party members fuming on social media.

Nehru said, “He is our SI. He was our security guy once. Now, he has returned as a DSP after promotion. He can do anything. He can make someone a convict or pull out someone’s name out of the guilty list of. I don’t want to add to it. He grew along with us.” That he chose to make this statement at an event organised by a civil service training academy only added insult to the injury.

Not just political rivals, even sympathisers of the DMK were unimpressed by his statements. A few described them as ‘asinine’ remarks. Some even went to the extent of asking the Chief Minister to keep his minister on a tighter leash.

It was a few days ago that the minister’s treatment of Chennai mayor during a media interaction became the talking point on several social media platforms.

— Karthikeyan K, Chennai