Letters

Readers respond to Frontline’s coverage.

Unofficial manifestos

The lies peddled by the hyper-communal and hyper-nationalist films from the Hindutva factory would make even Joseph Goebbels turn in his grave (Cover Story, May 3). Such films neither entertain nor enlighten viewers.  More than the films, their trailers play out as effective hate-peddlers. A case in point is The Kerala Story. Thanks to its convoluted plot, this film turned out to be an exercise of identifying a non-existent black cat (love jehad) in a dark room.

Ayyasseri Raveendranath

Aranmula, Kerala

In recent years, films with political overtones have been used as a tool to influence voting decisions of an impressionable public. Harry Truman famously said: “If you cannot convince them, confuse them.” This seems to be the agenda of such films, which cleverly bypass the Model Code of Conduct and expenditure ceilings prescribed by the Election Commission to portray invented stories and manufactured lies.

The film Razakar: The Silent Genocide of Hyderabad attempts to portray a tumultuous chapter in the history of Hyderabad post-Independence with a communal colour. The portrayal of Razakar as a force who targeted and killed only Hindus is far from the truth.

T.N. Venugopalan

Kochi, Kerala

BJP-PMK alliance

It is not surprising that the Pattali Makkal Katchi did a last-minute somersault to throw in its lot with the BJP (“PMK’s alliance with the BJP in Tamil Nadu defies logic”, May 3). PMK chief Ramadoss’ son Anbumani Ramadoss has been promised a Cabinet berth if the BJP comes back to power. More significantly, Anbumani is involved in two corruption cases for allegedly showing favour to medical colleges.

While the PMK draws double benefits from the BJP that the AIADMK cannot provide, the BJP stands to gain in vote share from the northern and western districts where the PMK is believed to be strong. Inded, PMK is a party that has turned political turncoatism into a fine art. While the BJP has worked hard to win over the hearts of the Tamil people by organising mammoth rallies and roadshows for its top leaders, it is unclear how many seats the party will win in this election. However, its individual vote share is predicted to go up to 10 per cent, and if anything, this will help the BJP win a substantial number of seats in the 2026 Assembly election.

Kangayam R. Narasimhan

Chennai

Periyar

While I agree with Karthick Ram Manoharan’s perspective, I have a slightly different nuance (“Did Periyar call for a genocide of Brahmins?”, April 19). From the ideology that there is an “oppressed” class and an “oppressor” class emerges the idea that you cannot be sexist towards a man, you cannot be casteist towards a privileged caste person, and so on. This causes a lot of confusion. You get things like “men’s rights activism”.

Intersectionality as a framework clears this confusion, but unfortunately, it is a complicated framework and requires political maturity to adopt. Remember all of us are humans. Granted that this is the state of matters, it is statistically better to err on the side of the “oppressed”, especially because issues of reverse-ism are usually not brought up in good faith.

The origin of this nuance is that while prejudice might exist among the “oppressor” and the “oppressed”, power can also exist among the “oppressor” and the “oppressed”. Intersectionality framework allows for such nuanced measurement of power (as opposed to claiming all women are powerless over men, and so on). Therefore, the line needs to be drawn on a case-by-case basis.

Akshay S. Dinesh

Bengaluru

I am now 84 and settled in Mumbai. During my schooldays in Madras, the Dravidian movement led by Periyar was active and aggressive in its targeting of Brahmins. I remember well the graffiti: “If you see a Brahmin and a snake, attack the Brahmin first.” Granted that Periyar’s radical statements were meant to raise indignation among the oppressed castes about their lowered position in society, but it still did not warrant his provocative call to attack Brahmins.

N. Jagannathan

Thane, Maharashtra

Correction

The caption on page 27 (“Viral fever”) in the issue dated May 3, 2024, should read “NTR as Duryodhana in the movie Dana Veera Sura Karna (1977)” and not as stated.