PTR, most-liked Dravidian voice on net

State Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan’s choice of vocabulary might have offended a few occasionally, but he still holds sway over the netizens. Thiaga Rajan, in fact, is the darling of Dravidian movement sympathisers on social media of late. Silver-tongued he is perceived by many supporters of Dravidian movement and DMK as the most vocal critic of the right wing ideology.

From Jaggi Vasudev to Nirmala Sitharaman and most recently state BJP president K Annamalai, PTR has shown no restraint in calling them out. The pungent retort of right wingers notwithstanding, PTR has gone about his business of daring the critics of the self-respect movement, unmindful of a few of his own party colleagues secretly grumbling about it.

A DMK old timer told on condition of anonymity, “PTR has been the target of the BJP and some communities of late. His informed arguments and its appeal among the English speaking political class in Delhi and media up north has been an irritant to the right wingers here.”

A DMK spokesman said, “Even if Elangovan had objections to the Minister’s choice of vocabulary, as a seasoned leader, he could have expressed it to the Minister privately or reported it to the high command. How many BJP seniors criticized their colleagues and Ministers in public when they had made unsavoury comments? Does a seasoned TKS not know that.” “I doubt PTR would be ignorant enough to abstain from a crucial meeting without informing his CM. Given that, who is TKS to go public on the issue, unless he was asked by the high command to do so,” the spokesperson argued.

“PTR’s comments about Elangovan were in bad taste. He realised it and deleted the tweet. The real issue here is not PTR’s choice of words. It is his critique of Hindutva ideology and celebration of Dravidian principles that irks his opponents. So, a coterie of BJP leaders and so called critics in TN have ganged up against the Minister,” a DMK district secretary told DT Next.