Reporter's diary: Slogans can get you into trouble or make a difference

CHENNAI: The most famous T-shirt slogan in Tamil Nadu in recent times is Hindi Theriyadhu Poda. Finding patronage across Kollywood celebrities to politicians, a tweet with the T-shirt made a strong statement than a well-argued article, whenever the language imposition becomes a topic of discussion on Twitter.

Given the migrant worker crisis in the State set in motion by rumour mongers, which unfortunately included widely circulated media outlets too, a discussion on language imposition is unlikely to happen for a while. This leaves us back to discussing T-shirt slogans.

Call it a wicked irony or mischievous coincidence, some suspects end up wearing T-shirts with slogans at the time of their arrest. Their photographs for the police records now fall under the category of ‘Images that precede unfortunate events’.

It’s not sure what this former Tamil Nadu Prison service staff was thinking when he wore a particular T-shirt when he accompanied his unsavoury friends and kidnapped a city-based businessman. When the prison staff was arrested by the Mambalam police, his T-shirt slogan read, ‘Judge me when you are perfect. Otherwise, Shut up’. Amen, brother!

A recent favourite though is the arrest of a Jharkhand man near the city, who shared a video clip with rumours claiming that migrant workers are beaten up in Tamil Nadu and are refused treatment in government hospitals here. Early this month, when the Tambaram police arrested the man, his T-shirt slogan read, ‘Together, we can make a difference’.