Taking Offence At Tamil TV Channel Anchor’s Remarks On Goddesses, Hindu Munnani Files 34 Cases

The Hindu Munnani has filed cases in 34 places across Tamil Nadu against an anchor of Tamil television channel Puthiya Thalaimurai, S Karthikeyan, for making derogatory remarks against Goddesses during a panel discussion.

Karthikeyan’s remarks have also drawn the ire of many in the social media while a section of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the state have begun demanding a boycott by the party of the television channel’s panel discussions.

During a discussion on permitting women into Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, the anchor, while making an intervention, linked Goddess with menstruation and posed a question to Narayanan Thirupathi, who was representing the BJP.

The remarks saw an upheaval against Karthikeyan, especially on social media.

Puthiya Thalaimurai, which began with a bang after its launch in 2009 as a television channel that was not aligned to either of the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu, is witnessing a decline in viewership in view of its biased coverage and panel discussions. The channel’s coverage of some of the events, like the Thoothukudi firing, the contentious Salem-Chennai eight-lane expressway project, the controversy over state candidates writing the national eligibility cum entrance tests (NEET) for medical seats, and protests demanding Cauvery water have drawn flak.

For the week that ended on 7 July, Puthiya Thalaimurai was ranked fifth for the viewership of its news programmes, with 12.98 million viewers.

The Hindu Munnani said on its official Twitter handle that Karthikeyan was sending out feelers to end the issue amicably.