Stalin did not abduct me: TV news reader sets record straight after 30 years
A widely gossiped urban folklore in Tamil Nadu – that DMK leader M K Stalin had abducted a Doordarshan Kendra news reader Fathima when his father M Karunanidhi was Chief Minister in the late 1980 – has finally been punctured with the anchor denying such an incident ever took place.
During 1989-90, Fathima, an upcoming news anchor in Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai, had suddenly vanished from the regular news bulletins. Back then the Doordarshan was the only television channel and it got noticed. Subsequently she reappeared on television with the surname Babu. It was then widely rumoured that Fathima was abducted by Stalin and hence she had hurriedly married Babu.
While this folklore was all but forgotten recently when Stalin objected to the Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit patting the cheek of a woman journalist, his critics took to online platforms to claim that he himself was caught in this TV anchor controversy.
However, now Fathima Babu, who is a member of the AIADMK, on Monday released a short audio message on WhatsApp, setting the record straight. Debunking the entire theory as a figment of fertile imagination, she explained the reason why she had kept away from anchoring news bulletins at that time. “In those days, I was acting in a television serial ''Chithirapaavai''. Back then Doordarshan had this policy wherein news readers of its bulletins can''t simultaneously cast news and act in serials. Therefore, I was not reading news,” she explained.
In a bid to disapprove the claims that she was abducted, Fathima said, she had known Babu at that time itself and he would often drop her at the Doordarshan office. “On days we had night shifts, the Doordarshan would organise a taxi to drop us back home. So there was no scope for this abduction at all. I had clarified this in an interview to Kumudham (Tamil magazine) at that time. But still these rumours are on, so I am setting the record straight that Stalin did not abduct me,” Fathima said. She added that if some people were still not convinced, she can only leave them to their wild imaginations.