Please send the letter posted below to all the National Television Channels mentioned (by inserting your name in the place of the sender) and share and circulate it widely.
[Via P. Dayanandan]
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To:
Times of India, vivek.narayan@timesgroup.com; info@timesnow.tv;
CNN-IBN, editor@ibnlive.com;
Headlines Today, info@aajtak.com;
NDTV, feedback@ndtv.com;
CC to: Justice Markandey Katju; justicekatju@gmail.com
Dear Sirs,
We are writing to you with sadness and pain that as major national English TV channels you have not highlighted the horrible event of the burning and destruction of nearly 400 Dalit houses in three villages near Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu.
Systematic looting, vandalism, terrorization and burning down has resulted in once happy families now living as refuges in fear and lack of even proper food and shelter. This planned attack perpetrated by about 2000 Vanniars belonging to some 30 villages has terrorized 3 villages for about 5 hours. Armed with fire, petrol bombs, crowbars and other weapons, they systematically looted the houses, stole all valuables, burnt all documents and certificates and then set fire to their houses, gutting them to the grounds in front of the people, old and young including children. Young school children witnessed fathers of their classmates stealing all valuables and pouring petrol, opening gas cylinders and setting fire to their houses. Some have estimated the damage caused at Rs. 25 crores. A love marriage between a Dalit young man and a Vanniar young woman is falsely cited as the cause of the violence and there seems to be some mystery surrounding the death of a father of the girl. Caste-based leaders of PMK are holding out threat against such intermarriages.
We are very upset that your channels have still refused to cover the entire event and highlight the injustice done to people. Is it because those suffering are Dalits? You are ever ready to make great stories about individual Indians in the USA, Australia, and Ireland or elsewhere when they suffer or when their rights are affected. Are the lives and dreams and rights of 2500 Dalits of no consequence? The atrocities at Dharmapuri pose grave danger to the unity of all Indians and undermine every value enshrined in our Constitution and Human Rights Declarations. Are these of no concern to the media such as yours?
We request you to not waste any more time and make a thorough investigation of the events at Dharmapuri and bring the plight of the affected people to the notice of all Indians and government agencies.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]
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