It was a day of marathon meetings in the state capital. AIADMK MLAs, MPs and senior leaders went into a huddle, to declare that the party was opposed to V.K. Sasikala and her family. Four resolutions were passed in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam. The resolutions apparently did not say anything about the sacking of Sasikala.
At dawn, the AIADMK ministers, MLAs, and the cadres who stood firmly behind OPS and EPS expected good news on Sasikala’s sacking, and with enough MLAs on their side, a completion in the process of party takeover.
While the resolutions in the meeting didn't mention the date for the general council and the executive committee meeting, a note was sent out in the name of Madhusudhanan, who was the presidium chairman of the party when Jayalalithaa was around, saying both the council and the committee will meet on September 12. This is widely considered an attempt to buy time and pull more MLAs and party executives towards EPS side.
Unfortunately, at least 60 MLAs didn't take part in Monday's meeting, exposing the weakness of the EPS faction.
Sources say this meeting was arranged under pressure from the OPS faction to oust Sasikala as soon as possible, one of the primary conditions for the merger. Emerging out of the meeting, minister Rajenthira Balaji reportedly said, “We did not discuss anything on Sasikala’s ouster,” giving an impression that the EPS team was lacking in direction. One other resolution, which had no links to the running of the party or the government was the acquisition of Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR, the official party organ.
The resolution, party insiders say, was only to give an appearance that EPS was fighting against the Sasikala clan.
Jaya TV is run by Mavis Satcom, a company registered on November 18, 1998. At present, as per the documents available with Registrar of Companies, Prabha Shivakumar, Dr S. Venkatesh—sister-in-law and brother-in-law of T.T.V. Dhinakaran respectively—Maruthappa Palanivelu, related to Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan, are the directors of Mavis Satcom.
Prabha Shivakumar is its managing director, while the other two are it directors. As per the RoC records, the company’s AGM was last held on September 30, 2016 and it filed its last balance sheet with RoC on March 31, 2016.
Till a few years before, the channel was managed by Anuradha Dhinakaran as its CEO, under the supervision of Jayalalithaa; Prabha Shivakumar was then elevated as its CEO. According to sources in Jaya TV, the channel is now managed by Vivek Jayaraman, son of J. Ilavarasi, who is also in prison along with Sasikala. Ilavarasi is Sasikala’s sister-in-law. Reportedly, Vivek Jayaraman, son of Ilavarasi, was seen posing for pictures with Jaya TV camera team, a few minutes before Dhinakaran’s first ever public rally at Melur on August 14.
Jaya TV and its bouquet of channels, considered to be backed by AIADMK, aired meetings, announcements and happenings related to the party and the government. And Namadhu MGR is considered the official mouthpiece of AIADMK. Printed and published by S.S. Poongunran at Jaya Publications, according to the imprint in the rear page of the newspaper.
Poonguran was the personal secretary to Jayalalithaa. Poongunran was, in fact, a director in the many companies owned by Sasikala, including Midas Distilleries, the major liquor manufacturer in Tamil Nadu for a brief period.
Of late, Namadhu MGR has been publishing views and news against the ruling BJP. In the first week of August, its editor Marudhu Alaguraj was reportedly sacked for writing against the BJP. Recently in July, greetings from Chief Minister Edppadi K. Palaniswami for Namadhu MGR’s anniversary was telecast in Jaya Plus, the 24-hour news channel from the group.
Though there were changes after the return of Dhinakaran from Tihar jail, both Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV continued to publish news about the AIADMK government. But, since July 15, there was a sudden boycott of news and views on the AIADMK government and also about the ministers. On July 17, when chief minister visited the Kodungiyur fire accident site to announce solatium for the injured, the news was blacked out by Jaya TV; Namadhu MGR too did not write about it.
"A party cannot start taking over a media organisation. Ultimately the government cannot use it powers to take over the media. I don’t know how they are not advised on this. It is in the hands of Sasikala’s family members. Their family is controlling these companies and they are private persons. Even when Jayalalithaa was alive, they were producing a newspaper and running a bouquet of TV channels. There is no public money involved in it. So, taking over a media organisation is not possible without following a due process of law,” says Manuraj Shanmuga Sundaram, DMK spokesperson and advocate, who has extensive knowledge of the legalities in the wealth case involving these properties.
Despite all this mockery in the name of a resolution, ministers Thangamani, D. Jayakumar and C.V. Shanmugam from the EPS side, and Rajya Sabha MP V. Maitreyan and Manoj Pandian from OPS side are likely to visit New Delhi and meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. Sources also say that the five are likely to file an affidavit with the Election Commission of India, saying they have merged and seek to release the frozen two-leaves symbol. However this too cannot be done, as the Dhinakaran faction MLAs are likely to visit New Delhi and meet with the president and vice president, seeking governor's intervention. If at all the EPS and OPS camp file an affidavit with the ECI to get back the two leaves symbol, Dhinakaran will challenge it in the commission, which means the stalemate will continue.
