CHENNAI: Whether he is Internet savvy or not, DMDK founder Vijayakanth is no doubt all over the web. Log on to Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or any social networking site, he is ubiquitous in the form of memes, popping up with regularity on everyone’s feeds.
But it is no laughing matter to the advocates of DMDK, who now want the Internet to be wiped off those memes. The party’s legal wing was at the Police Commissioner’s office on Thursday, seeking criminal action against those ‘spreading’ canards in the form visual messages and jokes on the Internet.
Of course they have a point. Vijayakanth is turned into the butt of jokes whatever the occasion is. Even US President Barack Obama’s visit to India was an event for meme-manufacturers to make the actor-politician look like someone not knowing the difference between Michelle (Obama) and mixture. The Delhi elections saw him confusing Arvind Kejriwal and actor Kajal Aggarwal. When the football World Cup fever was on, he is seen posing in an image captioned, “Who is Lion Dates Mixie?” (Lionel Messi).
The leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu has lakhs of followers and the memes are meant to defame him, feel the lawyers, who even named a couple of functionaries in rival parties to be behind the mischievous messages. Of course, the anger and fear over the memes affecting his reputation among the youth too is valid.
For the cyber pranksters, who too are probably young, make him look like a fool on his alleged confusion over Tamil words that rhyme with popular terms like ‘Interstellar’ or ‘Barbeque Nation’ that the younger generation is familiar with. A wrong impression is likely to be created about his abilities, the lawyers fear and hence want appropriate action under the Information Technology Act and other IPC sections and the entire Internet wiped clean of the offending memes. Wonder if the last demand will inspire a fresh set of memes.