Money for nothing
But there seems to be an element of truth in the opposition’s protest that DMK has been unleashing money power to win elections. Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta, who’s not a favourite bureaucrat of the DMK government, laments: “Now the problem is that people have started demanding money. In the past they asked for better basic amenities like drinking water, better roads, etc. Now they have started asking for money because they think that it gives them greater satisfaction.” So who is to blame? Politicians for bribing them or people for losing a community affinity and becoming selfish?
What was she thinking?
This was an embarrassment Soundarya Rajnikanth could have done without. Her animated film Sulltan with her father, Superstar Rajnikanth, playing a superhero has been long in the making and questions are coming up over when it will be finished. Meanwhile, she or Ocher Studios, of which she is the CEO, made Goa. But the high court restrained her company on December 1 from releasing it after Varun Manian (rumour has it that he and she were an item sometime ago), Managing Director of NAPC Properties, claimed his company paid Rs 1.10 crore on different dates in 2007 and 2008 and that all he was returned was Rs 20 lakh whereas Rs 1,36,37,589 should be paid factoring in 24 per cent interest. Apart from that he filed another civil suit saying Soundarya had asked him for funds to produce Goa and promised to return it with 24 per cent interest and he had given Rs 50 lakh in December 2007. This was not returned so the high court should not let Soundarya release “Goa” which she planned to do later this month.