TVK cadres seized a journalist's phone and deleted his videos at Dharapuram, alleges BJP's Nagenthran

Dharapuram (Tiruppur district): Two days before one of the most watched by-elections in recent Tamil Nadu history, the campaign in Dharapuram has produced an allegation that strikes at the heart of press freedom. BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran on Sunday alleged that functionaries of the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam seized a journalist's mobile phone and forcibly deleted videos he had recorded of them. According to Mr. Nagenthran, the journalist had been filming TVK functionaries in Dharapuram when the party's workers confronted him, took his phone, and wiped the recordings. He condemned the incident as intimidation of the press, arguing that a ruling party confident of its record would have nothing to fear from a camera. The allegation comes at a feverish moment. Dharapuram goes to the polls on October 6, alongside Madurantakam, in by-elections widely seen as the first electoral test of the TVK government. The campaign has already seen a pile-up of charges and counter-charges. On Saturday, Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate Karthika alleged that TVK workers were distributing tiffin boxes, Rs 6,000 in cash, silver coins and a 'Victory Cup' to voters, and questioned whether election officials were acting impartially. TVK has rejected the cash-for-votes claim, insisting it trusts its ideology and its supporters. The BJP, which is backing AIADMK candidates in both bypolls, has positioned itself as the loudest opposition voice against the TVK government. Mr. Nagenthran has in recent weeks accused the Vijay government of everything from contaminated school breakfasts to the misuse of religious symbols, and demanded the arrest of TVK functionaries more than once. What makes the Dharapuram allegation different is its target: not a rival politician, but a working journalist. Intimidation of the press, seizing the instrument and deleting the evidence, is a tactic with an ugly history in Tamil Nadu politics, and it sits uneasily with the TVK's self-image as a young, clean alternative to the old order. Neither the TVK nor the police had issued a statement on the allegation at the time of publication. The test for the ruling party is straightforward: a government that deletes the record invites the suspicion that the record was worth deleting.