When entrepreneur Kennithraj Anbu asked students who their favourite personality was, during the recent Periyar Memorial Lecture organised by the Sports Development Department, the hall erupted with “Thalapathy” screams followed by loud cheers. For some reason, film director Karu Palaniappan, who took the stage after Kennithraj, assumed that students meant Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, who was in the audience by saying ‘Thalapathy’ and made a reference in his speech. In response, the crowd screamed that they had actually meant actor and TVK leader Vijay. However, Karu Palaniappan gracefully handled the situation saying even Vijay had paid tribute to Periyar. Fun fact: MK Stalin is also referred as Thalapathy.
Name is respect
A controversy broke out at the ninth convocation of Tamil Nadu Dr J Jayalalithaa Fisheries University in Nagapattinam, which was held on September 18, as the district collector did not attend the event. The reason cited by official sources was that his name was not mentioned in the invitation. However, the university sources told TNIE that only the names of convocation guests and university representatives would be mentioned in the invitation. Another notable absence at the September 18 event, despite being mentioned in the invitation, was the university’s pro-chancellor - Minister of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare Department. Meanwhile, the then-collector had attended the previous convocation despite his name not being on the invitation.
Pillar fight
The tussle between bureaucracy and legislature is not new to our country. When a two-time former MLA and senior leader of a Communist party tried to meet the Krishnagiri Collector during a grievance redressal programme recently, the collector scheduled some time for him initially. However, it was cancelled due to the collector’s busy schedule. Later, the leader and the cadre were asked to meet the collector at the GDP hall on the ground floor, where the ex-MLA had to stand in a queue with the general public. This made the leader furious. Though he spoke with the collector afterwards and informed him of grievances on behalf of the public, he was heard ranting about the ill-treatment later.
(Contributed by Subashini Vijayakumar, Antony Fernando & S Sivaguru; compiled by Sneha Joseph)