Responding to the flood of criticism over her article for the Malayala Manorama daily on Wednesday castigating the visual media stance on solar scam accused Saritha S Nair, activist Sunitha Krishnan avers to The News Minute that she stands by every word.
“I first tweeted on the issue a week ago. After that, while speaking at a public function in Thodupuzha, I voiced my concerns on the same. There were around 30 media persons present. It was only Malayala Manorama which approached me and asked me whether I’d like to pen down my thoughts for them. I readily agreed to do so because all the points that I raised in the article, I gathered from the offline crowd spread across the country and who had had enough of the solar drivel being celebrated by the visual media in Kerala.”
Sunitha Krishnan has been criticized by many for saying that Saritha’s allegations were calculative and considering her repute, unbelievable. Many have pointed out on social media that it was ironic that the activist wrote for Malayala Manorama, which has been accused of being soft on Chandy and other politicians like KM Mani.
Sunitha adds that she is not in the habit of checking the antecedents of all the media publications she interacts with. Asked to respond on criticism that she was acting like Kerala CM’s stooge, she said, “I am no one’s stooge. I have so often walked away from the present ruling front in Kerala for not doing enough vis-à-vis various social issues I associate with. And whether Malayala Manorama is pro-Congress or not has nothing to do with me.”
According to her, everyone is entitled to their own view-points regarding Saritha and the entire solar scam and all she did was give voice to her own.
“I endorse all that was written under my name in Malayala Manorama except the headline which I would have preferred to be ‘Ban the Media’ instead. Whether the readers agree with me or not is up to each one’s discretion. Reading between the lines is well their choice to be imaginative. I have no say in it,” Sunitha signs off.