DMK bats for Rahul Gandhi’s ‘leadership’ again?

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK has once again thrown its weight behind Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to lead the fight against the BJP led Centre in 2024.

Expressing solidarity with Rahul Gandhi on the eve of his Bharat Jodo Yatra launch from Kanniyakumari on Wednesday, DMK party organ ‘Murasoli’ on Tuesday said, “Welcome Rahul Gandhi. Let your revolutionary tour (yatra) succeed to deliver good governance to the nation.”

Recalling a similar slogan raised by Chief Minister M K Stalin during the unveiling of M Karunanidhi’s statue in Anna Arivalayam in 2018, a full-page article penned by Stalin’s uncle and former editor of DMK mouthpiece ‘Murasoli’ Mr Selvam this morning said, “Hero of hardwork Thalapathy (Stalin) will stand by you (Rahul). Let your tour (yatra) continue without wavering till securing victory.”

Drawing a parallel between M Karunanidhi led DMK’s support to Indira Gandhi in the distant past and Stalin led DMK’s support to Rahul Gandhi now, the article detailed the decisive support offered by Karunanidhi to Indira’s presidential candidate VV Giri then and said, “Chowkri’s (Indira was sarcastically addressed so) game ended then. Pappu’s game begins today. DMK president (Karunanidhi) had lent a helping hand to Chowkri then. Today, thalapathi is setting the platform for pappu’s (political) game.”

Recapping Karunanidhi’s popular “Nehru’s daughter is welcome to deliver a stable government” slogan, the DMK mouthpiece said, “A similar voice is about to be raised in the southern end of the nation again.”

Selvam, who has the ears of DMK president Stalin, also took a dig at the rest of the Opposition and the Congress party for squandering the opportunity to unseat the BJP in 2019. Reminiscing how Stalin pitched Rahul for Prime Minister candidature even when the Congress was reluctant ahead of the last Parliamentary election, the Murasoli article said, “The country is suffering now because of the Congress and anti-BJP forces not uniting then. As a result of the BJP capturing power with mere 37.4% votes, fascism has reared its ugly head. Communal bigotry is destroying the nation. Indian democracy and sovereignty are suffering.”MUMBAI: Veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, who will be turning 80 next month, has portrayed countless characters on the silver screen and has made each one of them unique even while he did a barrage of angry young man characters penned by Salim-Javed. Recently, during the trailer launch of his upcoming film 'Good Bye', the senior actor gave the entire credit of portraying varied characters to producers, writers and directors.

Speaking on the sidelines of the trailer launch, Big B who attended the event virtually, told media, "The actual credit behind me keeping the monotony at bay with my characters goes to the very many producers, directors and writers whom I have had the privilege to work with over the years."

Giving the reason behind his statement, he mentioned, "As actors, we perform according to the source material given to us. In addition, filmmaking is a collaborative art, bahut saare log mil ke ek film banaate hain (a lot of people come together to make a film), I cannot take the entire credit behind all my characters."

"So yes, if something goes wrong, you should catch hold of producers, directors and writers", the superstar added in a lighter vein.