Tamil Nadu: Viral video shows Ramadoss threatening to hack journalists

A video has gone viral in Tamil Nadu that shows Dr S. Ramadoss, founder and leader of the PMK, threatening to hack journalists who questioned him on the party's infamous 'tree cutting' protests. Ironically, Ramadoss's comments were made at an event on 'hate politics' on Saturday. The PMK is one of the major allies of the BJP-led NDA in Tamil Nadu.

In the video, Ramadoss criticised journalists, calling them “dogs”. In the video, Ramadoss refers to an incident a few years ago, when he was questioned on the PMK's tree-cutting protests by a journalist from The Telegraph, a Kolkata-based newspaper. Ramadoss claimed the journalist repeatedly asked him the same question on the tree-cutting protests.

“I told him that I have answered this question a hundred times. You are asking about it repeatedly with a motive, which is to establish that Ramadoss is a tree-cutter. You want to ensure that even people who don’t know about this get to know it now,” Ramadoss recalled. Stating that he gave a firm answer, Ramadoss said, “I told him, if there is any such protest in the future, we will not cut trees anymore; instead, we will cut people like you.”

Not stopping there, Ramadoss went a step ahead and called journalists, “dogs, Kammanati pasanga (a derogatory term used for the son of a widow)”. “Hey dogs come and see where all I have planted trees. I have been offering Rs.1 lakh prize for those who plant trees and promote green. I have raised a forest under our charitable trust. Come see all that and write,” he added. Ramadoss’s comments were welcomed by cadres of the PMK.

Condemning Ramadoss for his hate speech, Chennai Press Club president Bharathi Thamizhan, in a statement, sought an apology and said, “people are watching such hate speeches”.

The video of Ramadoss went viral on Sunday. Interestingly, the frustration and intolerance on display from the PMK supremo follows the party's debacle in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The PMK lost from all the seven constituencies it contested in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. The PMK contested as part of the NDA alliance. Ramadoss's son, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, was visibly upset after journalists threw sharp questions at him during a press conference in Chennai to explain why the PMK allied with the ruling AIADMK after criticising it earlier. Though he took a few questions, Anbumani later lost his cool during the press conference and even asked the organisers to take away the microphone from the journalists who were asking questions.

Tree-cutting past

In 2013, the infamous Marakkanam protests saw PMK leaders and party men fell trees across the state. The PMK cadres in 2013 were replaying their 1980s campaign of cutting down trees only to be accused of anti-dalit violence. In April 2013, despite stern warning by then chief minister Jayalalithaa, the PMK went on a rampage and cut down around 16 trees near Marakkanam. The violence was an outcome of a continued belligerence of the Vanniyar-dominated PMK, which wanted to form a grand alliance of backward communities against dalits just before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In the 1980s, the PMK indulged in rampant violence by burning buses and felling trees when it demanded 20 percent reservation for the Vanniyar community.