BJP’s rising sun in the south, its’ much touted ‘young face’, 28 year old Tejasvi Surya is fast proving to be a case of old wine in a new bottle, resorting to time tested BJP-RSS methods of arm twisting the media to hide uncomfortable truths. Faced with growing condemnation after media coverage of a #MeToo allegation on twitter against him went viral, Tejasvi Surya swiftly moved to get a gagging order against major media outlets including the Times Of India, The Hindu and Bangalore Mirror from a City Civil & Sessions court.
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The court while passing a questionable interim injunction (valid till May 27) observed “… …How all of a sudden these allegations against the plaintiff emerged immediately after he filed nomination for the General Elections is a questionable question.” Questioning motives behind allegations of sexual abuse, harassment or violence with a ‘why now, why not earlier?’ is a sure fire patriarchal put down. That a court of law resorts to it in an ex parte judgement is surprising. In this context it must be noted that Tejasvi Surya himself, far from denying the allegations (right after the allegations surfaced) had made the following statement according to Deccan Herald ( https://www.deccanherald.com/state/accused-of-assault-surya-says-lets-stop-this-here-725594.html)
“[name] is a close friend of mine. She herself deleted the tweets that were against me. Further, she has also requested everybody not to continue this any further. As a gentleman, it is my utmost duty to respect her words and I will not continue this any further “
How gentlemanly it is to move court to gag media is perhaps a questionable question too.
Tejasvi Surya however is no stranger to controversy. Behind the suave veneer lies the well known grime of hateful Hindutva politics. His sanghi roots are often exposed in his misogynistic stances, hyper-nationalistic war mongering and aggressive anti-minority utterances.
On second thought, perhaps these are the very traits that have endeared him to the BJP central leadership and earned him his candidature. Albeit it is also possible that his over the top sycophancy has paid rich dividends. The current Prime Minister is known to enjoy and encourage bhakti.
So the question on everybody’s lips now is – will the media houses that have been named in the complaint take a stand by not only challenging the injunction in higher courts, but also calling out Mr. Surya’s cowardly bluff ? Because it is about time that someone did.