I-PAC imprint visible on DMK’s togetherness initiative to help public

A quick glance at the initiative on public forum suggested that it was the brainchild of the I-PAC run by professional analysts and not the DMK. Less than an hour after Stalin had announced the launch of the initiative, Prashant and team swung into action. The PR machinery of the political analyst got in touch with as many media personnel it could zero in on to popularise the initiative.

Ironically, workers and functionaries of the DMK were not as quick to get into a publicity overdrive. Till early on Tuesday, north Indian Twitterati, mostly associated with I-PAC, were keeping the Ondrinaivom Vaa hashtag live on Twitter. “Probably, most of our party workers would get going in a week,” said a party senior in Chennai not willing to be named.

“The initiative has shocked the ruling party. Hence, they are preventing opposition party from engaging in relief distribution. Indeed, it has affected us. We faced a lot of problems in reaching out to the people. However, we have overcome it somehow. The togetherness initiative was conceived only after that. The initiative is our answer to the ruling party,” a district secretary remarked.

“This is new to us. Only yesterday, some of our very senior party functionaries, who are not very tech savvy have had their first video call. We should thank our leader Stalin for that. The initiative will bring more party workers on board. How many people can the AIADMK prevent? People in every locality know who reached out to them. How will the government stop that,” asked a officer-bearer. He also justified; “When our party launches an initiative. What is wrong in our leaders using an exclusive logo as their profile picture? Whoever calls it a publicity stunt will envy us in a week. Such will be amount of relief we distribute and network we create. Wait and see.” A member of the I-PAC team to whom DT Next spoke said that the initiative was purely DMK’s and they were only coordinating the technical know how. “Till Monday night, we had received 2,500 calls. Many have registered. The numbers will be updated daily,” the I-PAC representative added.

The CPM on Tuesday urged the state government to provide Rs 1 crore insurance coverage for health workers, including doctors working in both the government and the private hospitals involved in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. In a letter to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan noted, “Fourteen doctors were infected by the coronavirus and undergoing treatment as they were not given proper protective gears. Two doctors died. There were reports of several nurses getting infected.” He demanded that the health workers should be provided with international standard PPE to prevent any future infections. “The daily working duration of the doctors treating COVID-19 patients should be fixed at six hours and they must be kept in isolation for 14 days,” he added.