KOCHI: The future of Tamil Nadu politics remains unpredictable, said noted journalist ‘Nakkheeran’ Gopal. “New political parties are being born every day in Tamil Nadu with the sole aim of becoming a major power. Be it the party of actor Kamal Hassan or the ‘undeclared’ party of Rajnikanth or anyone else. We can only say that in 2021 when the election results are out,” he said in an exclusive chat with Express here.
Sixty-year-old Gopal, hailing from Ramanathapuram, is well known for his encounter with slain forest smuggler Veerappan and acting as a mediator to release the Kannada actor Rajkumar. His 30-year-old weekly Nakheeran has covered several sensational cases in the last three decades. So far, the Tamil Nadu police have registered 261 FIRs against him. Of these, 213 are defamatory cases. In addition, three murder and four kidnapping cases were also registered against him. For Gopal, the FIRs are part of a true journalist’s life.
In October, Gopal was arrested for allegedly defaming the Tamil Nadu Governor in a report. The police had slapped him with Section 124. However, he was released soon after the Chennai court rejected a police request for his remand. “I was being targeted for reporting. Our 35 staffers have not obtained bail so far. I was wrongly implicated in the case. The journalists’ forum in Tamil Nadu stood for me in the court,” he said.
Though Tamil Nadu has developed in terms of social infrastructure, the caste system still plagues the state. “ We can’t do anything. The caste is still an issue in my state. Even politicians seek votes citing caste. It will take some time for a societal change,” Gopal feels.
The veteran journalists reminisced his experiences of meeting Veerappan in the dense forest of Sathyamangalam. “Veerappan had support from police and politicians to escape from the police surveillance and for sandalwood smuggling.
When I first met him, he asked about my big moustache similar to him. He wanted to know whether I had grown moustache after watching him. I gently replied that I had started growing moustache during the 1980s. I was also proud that I had later met Veerappan as a representative of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments for mediation talks. Though many mainstream media attempted it was my turn to meet him,” he added. Gopal alleged Veerappan was killed by the police in a brutal way.