From Monday morning, Jayaram Venkatesan, the convenor of Arappor Iyakkam has been forced to field dozens of phone calls enquiring about masks that will protect people from the coronavirus. While initially stumped, the founder of the anti-corruption NGO soon found out that this was the result of advertisements placed for selling face masks wholesale, with his number in Telugu newspapers. And not only his, the number of his Treasurer Nakheeran and his NGO's official number were also listed in the ad.
'Someone has given a fake advertisement for corona masks with my mobile number, treasurer and Arappor number, spending a lakh in Sakshi paper today to harass us. Have been getting non-stop calls,' tweeted Jayaram on Monday evening.
The two papers where the ad was listed are 'Sakshi' and 'Namaste Telangana'. TNM got in touch with the team in Sakshi responsible for the advertisement and a member while apologising for the harassment the activists faced, maintained that they had merely printed out the advertisement based on the details given by the client.
"We do not usually cross check numbers that come on the advertisement brief. We apologise for the harassment faced by the person whose number it is," said the Sakshi employee.
The client who gave this advertisement, we found out, was a certain Srinivas Bollapally Raju, a member of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
Speaking to TNM he said, "Even I was told about the mistake. I had given the task to my boys to get the ad published. I have no idea who made the mistake, and I don't know about the Iyakkam at all. It was a loss for us as well. My friends got into this business, and I helped them in marketing their product. I will find out how the mistake happened, and get a fresh ad published. I apologise for the incident."
Arappor however does not buy the argument.
"We don't know under whose instance he has given this advertisement," says Jayaram Venkatesan. "The government has already filed civil and criminal defamation cases against us on the minister Velumani corruption issue we raised. They have used the police to threaten us. The issue of coronavirus is so serious . People are already panicking over shortage of masks. And to use this issue is an extremely cheap tactic. It shows the nature of the people we are fighting."
TNM spoke to a senior TRS leader's office. They in turn called Bollapally Raju and claimed that it had been a genuine mistake. "They have also incurred a loss. They have no connection with Tamil Nadu," the source said.