AIADMK has taken sycophancy to a sickening level in Tamil Nadu

If AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa is reading this, she should sack the hoodlums who masquerade as the leaders of her party in Ooty. Because what the gang of about fifteen-odd lumpen elements from the AIADMK did on the evening of March 26, shames not only Jayalalithaa and her party but even the country. It shows a mirror to the pathetic political culture in India.

This is what happened. A group of 25 volunteers - 15 women and 10 men - from the Make Ooty Beautiful Foundation - was cleaning a wall that had been defaced by graffiti and posters greeting Jayalalithaa on her birthday on February 24. This was on Spencer Road, just a stone's throw from the district collector's office. Soon, the AIADMK activists led by V Gopalakrishnan, Ooty municipality vice chairman, TK Devarajan, AIADMK Ooty town secretary and senior leader Raja Mohammed, arrived on the spot, mouthing profanities, that would make anyone cringe. They flared up seeing the five-week old birthday wishes which they had written on the walls being cleared as the volunteers focused on cleaning, sprucing and painting the wall afresh.

It didn't seem to matter to these sycophants that Jayalalithaa's birthday was long over, too late to even extend "belated birthday wishes". They used the most abusive language on the volunteers, cursed their caste and used sexually suggestive language against the women. They kicked the bucket of paint which splashed on the volunteers and even on passersby and vehicles on the road.

Ideally this work of cleaning up walls should be done by the municipal authorities but they reportedly show little interest in doing so. This foundation has been silently doing its bit to keep the most popular hill station in Tamil Nadu clean since last year. The ownership of this wall is with BSNL, which was partnering with "Make Ooty Beautiful" to clean it up.

But what is even more shocking is that when Shobana Chandrasekar, the founder of "Make Ooty Beautiful" went to the police to complain, there was no sympathy for what she and her team had endured. Instead the officer asked her the most ridiculous question, seeking to know if she had written permission from BSNL for cleaning up and repainting the wall. This is the quality of policing in Tamil Nadu where the officer clearly does not have the spine to even seek an explanation from street goons wearing AIADMK colours.

In a year from now, the same AIADMK elements will be out on Ooty's streets, seeking votes. The queen of hill stations will then decide if it will stick with such distasteful characters or go in for a coat of fresh paint. Till then, the ball is in the court of the queen of Poes Garden.