Chennai: ‘Thalapathy becomes Thala’ was the comment seen across social media as M K Stalin took charge as the president of the DMK on Tuesday. After about 50 years of the former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi as the party’s chief, now, when Stalin succeeded him, Facebook and Twitter went crazy with the event, showing support and opposition in the form of mockery, poems and memes.
hen Stalin gave his first speech as DMK president at party headquarters Anna Arivalayam, Facebookite Sathya Subramani posted, ‘Thala Thalapathi’, referring to the saloon run by Santhanam in the movie Boss Engira Baskaran. As per the movie’s context, it refers to two superstars – Ajith Kumar and Vijay – of Tamil film industry; in Sathya’s context it was Stalin who widely known as ‘Thalapathy’ who turns to be ‘Thala’, the president. Sathya also raised a doubt whether the DMK would go hand-in-hand with the BJP, pointing to Lotus TV, the BJP’s official channel live-relaying Stalin’s ascension.
DEMANDS
Radha Rajavignesh, another netizen, had some serious things to say. Listing several issues including GST, fuel price inflation, bus fare hike, etc., she asked Stalin, “Are you still going to organise protests, road or rail rokos to disturb public life, or are you going to take serious measures to put an end to this?” She also said, the DMK was the only Dravidian party left with at least minimal hope.
If Radha had expectations on basic amenities, there were some bigger demands, too. Quoting Stalin’s speech in March this year, calling all four southern States together to form Dravida Nadu, Ajit Daniels, a Facebook user, yesterday insisted, “Please make this happen… Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh what are you waiting for?”
On Stalin’s take on religious politics, Manoj Kumar in a comment wrote, “So, Sir with all respect you want to rule Tamilnadu not on development but on religion base… No need to fight against Modi or teaching a lesson to him… you will not serve as a CM to fight against PM… you will fight for people for every odds… Don’t worry we will teach him… First look after good governance… Please don’t play what has been showcased by rest of politicians since independence…” Manoj stressed that supporting or opposing religion was not the need of the hour, but looking into people’s development.
Twitter hashtag #DMKThalaivarStalin was trending on top. Kulithalai Mano, a DMK cadre in the tweeple space, said, “Our Thalapthy has reincarnated today. A new birth as our Thalaivar.”
TROLLS
A section of DMK-haters, too, had a busy day Tuesday. One of them wrote, DMK is still in a monarchy system in the disguise of democracy. A twitterati wrote in the way of M Karunanidhi, “My son after me. His son after him. Then what about the cadres? They raised flags for me. Now they are holding it for my son, they will do the same for my grandson too.”
Similarly, highlighting Stalin’s take on the BJP in his speech on Tuesday, K H Krishnakumar, another tweep, said, “I think Stalin knows that his party is going to split soon. Preparing defences against Modi now itself.”
A large number of people believe on the Internet that the DMK will either form an alliance with the BJP, or the BJP will split the Dravidian party.
GREETINGS ON CYBERSPACE
