Sun shining on Jaya irks DMK

For someone who was the prime ‘enemy’ of the Sun Group and the politician brother Dayanidhi Maran, Jaya has recently been getting great print and air space in the media group owned by the Maran brothers after their fallout with the Karunanidhi family.

Earlier this week, when Jayalalithaa issued a statement regarding the ongoing tussle between RCV, promoted by Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Azhagiri, and Sun Group’s SCV in the former’s fiefdom of Madurai, it appeared under the headline ‘Madurai in mortal fear’, angering the DMK high command.

“Under the ‘great headline’, a half-page report carrying false information about the DMK and its Government as stated by AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa was printed in Dinakaran daily. Her statement, spitting venom line after line, is devoid of even a grain of truth, and has been prepared only to bring disrepute to the state Government,” said the directive to party cadres.

While no other newspaper has given much importance to her statement, Dinakaran has carried it verbatim, it added.

“Thus, the DMK will not have any link with Dinakaran henceforth, and party cadres are directed not to release advertisements or reports to the daily,” read the directive, published prominently on the frontpage of Murasoli.

While the Marans were still insiders of the first family, AIADMK and its general secretary were the prime targets of their media empire. Sun Group, Jaya and her party were virtually blacked out in Sun News or Dinakaran except for negative news. It also avoided any coverage of MDMK’s Vaiko who was earlier with the DMK before jumping into the AIADMK fold a little before Assembly elections in 2006.

However, with the Marans finding themselves on the wrong side of the party and the patriarch, both Jaya and Vaiko have been enjoying greater coverage: their statements and functions they attend are duly covered, aired and printed.

On the other hand, DMK insiders admit that the Sun Group has no choice but to team with anti-DMK powers to withstand the onslaught unleashed by the party. “Having an unforgiving party chief who is also the CM, a hostile Government and the impulsive Azhagiri in the opposition camp, Sun’s options to survive are seriously limited. In a way, the brothers are being pushed to join Jaya to protect their interests, personal and business,” said an observer.