Tamil Nadu must be the only State where the main rivals for the 2016 Assembly elections, scheduled for May 16, employ all kinds of tricks under their disposal to hoodwink voters. A TV commercial produced by the DMK and aired by various channels has a “startling” revelation to make. “The 2015 December flood was mishandled both by the Central and State Governments,” accuses one of the commercials being broadcast by Tamil TV channels.
“This is a criminal offence and we will for sure approach the Election Commission of India against this advertisement,” said Prakash Swamy, spokesman, Tamil Nadu BJP.
He said the advertisement gives the message that the Central Government did nothing while floods ravaged Chennai and other neighbouring districts. “It was the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force which reached the flood affected spots within minutes. The National Disaster Relief Force stationed at Arkonam flew down to Chennai and took control of the situation,” pointed out Swamy.
He said most of the members of the union cabinet rushed to Chennai to supervise from Ground Zero to coordinate rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations. “The Prime Minister flew down to Chennai and offered an immediate financial package of Rs 2000 crore for the rescue and relief operation. The advertisement being beamed by the DMK is a blatant lie and it is against all known ethics in the world,” said a visibly upset Swamy.
The DMK message shot in black and white accuses the concerned agencies for their failure to help the victims. “Those who watched the Chenai flood news in TV and read about in newspapers will never forget the yeoman services rendered by the soldiers of our defence forces. The DMK is deploying all dirty tricks to divert the attention of the people in the hope of getting their votes,” said Uma Anandan.
The Central Board of Film Certification, which scrutinises advertisements long with films is not authorised to censor the visuals meant for TV telecast. “Only those advertisements which are meant for exhibition in theatre come for censoring to us. The TV advertisements need not be censored by us,” said a senior CBFC official based in Chennai.
The authenticity of the election commercials suffered a major setback the other day when it was brought to the attention of the public that the same models are being used both by the DMK as well as the AIADMK.