Reporters Diary: Is zipping the lip the best option for NTK cadre

Immediately after NTK announced its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, an audio recording of Seeman and a party functionary in Virudhunagar arguing over the choice of candidates for a constituency in the Parliamentary polls went viral. 

In the two-minute audio, a person sounding like Seeman calls the functionary and asks him why he is raising questions over the selection of LS candidates. When the functionary retorted that he was only reflecting the ground reality, a furious sounding ‘Seeman’ asked him if he took the director to be an idiot. The party chief then directed the functionary to either work for the candidate nominated by him or to get out.  While the audio clip was used by the meme creators to take pot-shots at Seeman’s party, another audio clip of Seeman’s assistant Pugazhendhi with another cadre is being widely shared in the social media. Unlike the first one, however, this clip seems to contain only the choicest abuses exchanged by Pugazhendhi and the party worker. 

In contrast to his party’s Tamil Nationalist ideology, this steady leak of audio clips can possibly tarnish NTK’s image among the public. The only feasible way out for Seeman’s party now may be to just zip their lips and maintain decorum during their telephone conversations.