CHENNAI: The Chennai police on Tuesday night arrested a 23-year-old man for tweeting a video meme from the 'Voice of Savukku Shankar' handle which police said denigrates women. The video meme intends to criticize the DMK government's eligibility norm for the honorarium of Rs 1000 announced in the state budget for women household heads.
The arrested person, identified by police as Pradeep, was one of the administrators of the Twitter account.
According to the police, he was arrested near Gummidipoondi around 11:30 pm on Tuesday. A case under sections 153, 505 (1) (b) and 509 of the IPC, a police source said. The video that was posted on the account ridicules the scheme of giving Rs. 1000 per month to eligible women in Tamil Nadu. After an inquiry, Pradeep was remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday.
The video meme was based on a comedy scene featuring top Tamil actors Goundamani and Senthil, is considered by many people as offensive and in bad taste as it appeared to belitttle women if they are not young and glamorous.
The intention of meme appeared to criticise the government's proposed eligibility norm, which is expected to be based on the economic criterion.
The DMK, during the 2021 poll campaign, promised the assistance to all women heads of families ahead. But after coming to power, the government said it will he only for eligible women household heads.
Following the arrest, Youtube Savukku Shankar, Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai and BJP National Executive Committee Member Kushbu Sundar, among others took to social media and criticized that the DMK government is abusing its powers.
BJP Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai tweeted: "Democracy turns into autocracy when powers are concentrated within one family & becomes a state of dictatorship in no time. The @arivalayam (DMK) govt is rattled by the slightest criticism & has displayed its dictatorial behaviour by arresting a person for a social media post."
"If posting a troll video deserves an arrest, the entire DMK IT wing should be behind bars as it is their full-time profession. Surprisingly, @tnpoliceoffl has arrested @voiceofsavukku at the behest of DMK despite knowing that the offence (if any) doesn't deserve it," he said.
"Curtailing freedom of expression, midnight arrests & self advertisements with no achievements to back them are true traits of a fascist, Thiru @mkstalin," he added.
AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan retweeted the clip and posted #ArrestMeToo_Stalin, apparently in solidarity with the arrested person Pradeep.
Savukku Shankar, a well-known critic of the DMK regime condemned the arrest and on his Twitter handle he too posted the 'arrest me' hashtag.
Hitting out at Shankar, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said, "I've ignored the paranoia of this fantasist, but this is 100% lunacy so I will react".
He denied he had anything to do with the arrest.
"a) I had no idea this handle existed, so have not seen the video, nor complained. b) When "criticism" of the State Budget by a suspended DVAC clerk (an apparent reference to Shankar) start to bother me. I'll quit public life," he said in a tweet.