AIADMK sacks IT functionary for derogatory tweet against journalists

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister Eddapadi K Palaniswami and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam on Monday expelled the party’s IT wing functionary from the party on the charges of anti-party activities.
C Hari Prabhakaran was joint secretary of party’s Kancheepuram East district unit of the IT wing. The action followed hours after he made derogatory comments on journalists in his official twitter handle. Prabhakaran has been an active tweeter.

In a statement, the leaders said Prabhakaran has been sacked from the primary membership of the party for having acted against the party’s principles and ideologies and brought disrepute to the party. “Cadres should not have any truck with him in the future,” the leaders said.

Prabhakaran sided with Panneerselvam, when the latter rebelled against the leadership of Sasikala in February last year.

When media access was denied to Tuticorin hospital on Monday during Panneerselvam’s visit to the injured, which triggered uproar in social media, Prabhakaran took to twitter to make offensive remarks against the journalists in twitter.

The video footage of kith and kin of the injured questioning information minister Kadambur Raju on Sunday about Sterlite went viral on Sunday.

Two hours after his first derogatory tweet, Prabhakaran tweeted again expressing his apologies to those who were hurt. “All opinions expressed by me are personal and it is not official party view. I am not authorised to express party views. I heard few people got hurt due to one of my tweets this morning. I don’t have any animosity towards any group of people,” he said. His sacking order came from the party headquarters 30 minutes later.

AIADMK IT wing secretary Singai G Ramachandran, in his tweet, warned the members to strictly adhere to decorum instilled by the leaders, Jayalalithaa, Panneerselvam and Palaniswami.