Off the cuff: Pollachi verdict sparks political war as DMK, AIADMK trade sexual assault blame
Last week, the Pollachi sexual assault verdict finally dropped, and as expected, the DMK wasted no time reminding the public that the horrors unfolded under AIADMK's watch. Political popcorn it is. Not to be outdone, the Arakkonam AIADMK rushed to flip the narrative. Their weapon? A domestic violence case involving Deivaseyal, a DMK youth wing member, accused of threatening a college girl to 'engage sexually' with party men. The girl's complaint even mentioned 20 other women allegedly facing similar exploitation. The police, however, called it a 'family issue.' Turns out, Deivaseyal had allegedly married (and deceived) multiple women. Not 20. Not even close. But the AIADMK didn't wait for fact-checks. They took the girl to the streets in protest—literally. She missed her college exam that day. Noble sacrifice or political stunt? Ironically, not even the Arakkonam AIADMK cadres showed up for their own show. Let's be clear: victim blaming is vile. But so is victim branding and weaponising a woman's trauma, just to score a few brownie points on election eve.
-Rajalakshmi Sampath
Calculated goof-up?
The state recently dropped a press release in the tone of an Oscar-winning reveal: Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare schools scored a record 96% in Class 12. 'A first in 60 years,' they beamed. Cue the confetti cannons. But, hold the applause. The math was even more puzzling than Schrodinger's cat. Tribal Welfare schools recorded 95.5% pass, while Adi Dravidar Welfare schools stood at 91.85%, with the latter having over three times the number of students than the former. Unless someone bribed the calculator with extra marks, this round-up is a bit exaggerated.
-Subashini Vijayakumar
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