VSK TN
A FAITH BUSTER TALK SHOW BUSTED BY ALERT HINDUS
How the SMS came in handy for alert Hindus to stop Sun News TV’s faith buster talk show
Millions of Hindu families for ages value the institution of marriage as most sacred. If a young man or a young lady in a Hindu family feels that his/her marriage is getting delayed he/she is advised to visit Thirumananjeri in Thanjavur District, Tamilnadu and offer pooja to Lord Shiva and Parvathi there. It is the common experience of thousands of families that within the next 90 days, the marriage does take place. This offering is has been found feasible by poor families in the Hindu society since the offerings at the temple consist of just a couple of lemon fruits, three garlands plus betel leaves and betel nuts. The main celebrations at Thirumananjeri temple takes place in Chithirai month (April and May); but the temple is crowded in all days of the year, a proof of the importance of marriage in Hindu society.
It is at such a citadel of faith that a section of the media—the Sun News Tamil TV channel to be precise—attempted to hurl abuse in order to destroy the faith of poor sections of Hindu society through its NIJAM (Truth) talk show at 10 P M on Monday, February 22, 2010, just a month ahead of the grand utsav at Thirumananjeri in April. The talk show sought to heckle at those who consider their marriage as a prasadam of Thirumananjeri Shiva.
Alert sections of Hindu society sensed the anti-poor, anti-Hindu mischief intended by the TV Channel (owned by Central Minister Maran family) going by its history of a weird depiction of Kashi, the holiest pilgrim centre of crores of Hindus, recently.
SMS came in handy. A flood of short messages alerting Hindus across Tamilnadu landed on the mobile phones of thousands of Hindu viewers of the channel. Then started a steady stream of polite but firm warnings (over phone and SMS) to the Nijam Organizer of Sun News TV Channel. It had a salutary effect. The telecast stopped with giving just details about the temple. The discussion that usually follows derides the Hindu sentiments was not aired on that day.
