Savukku Shankar, the social-media influencer, is in the limelight yet again. But behind bars now, on flimsy and even imaginary charges and attacked while in custody. His lawyers apprehend the draconian Goondas Act could be invoked against him.
It is rather problematic for me to comment on the saga, since I had been kind of close to him for a while. Having taken up the gauntlet anyway, I insist that for anyone who knows him well and has tracked his career from a clerk in the state police department to where he is now will not be too very outraged by the DMK government’s crackdown, even if one could suspect it is all motivated .
I do feel disheartened that he should land himself in such a mess, the implication of course being that he invited such a fate on himself. Mea culpa. But am angrier because he flattered to deceive.
He was a remarkable whistleblower and then an inveterate social media campaigner for progressive causes, for secularism particularly. He was first arrested on telephone tapping charges but later on acquitted. But he was also suspended from service, and it was a difficult existence for him at the time.
Savukku Shankar was running his blog savukku.com with help from his well-wishers, and slowly emerged as a figure of some respect, for he had great sources, unimpeachable or otherwise, and his reports riled the powers that be no end.
His websites were successively shut down, and there was no end to suspension either. Apparently governments, both the DMK and the AIADMK, didn’t want to lose all hold him, never mind he was writing whatever pleased him and happy with the subsistence allowance he was receiving. Perhaps they were hoping to woo him back into the fold and into silence.
Savukku Shankar was running his blog savukku.com with help from his well-wishers, and slowly emerged as a figure of some respect, for he had great sources, unimpeachable or otherwise, and his reports riled the powers that be no end
Since many of his scoops resulted in huge embarrassment to the Karunanidhi-led DMK government, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa could be said to have benefited enormously in the process, but she didn’t lift a finger to help him at any point of time.
Life continued to pose many challenges. What he was chasing, I had no idea, but he seemed undeterred by any amount of intimidation from any quarter, police or judiciary.
Also Read: YouTuber Savukku: Can tea shop talk reform judiciary?
I really loved him because of his courage and idealism. Whenever he went over the top on anything, would counsel him patience, restraint, but to no effect. Still I admire his writing skills in Tamil, and he had also acquired working knowledge of English. An exemplary autodidact indeed.
Savukku Shankar would denounce all kinds of religious extremism, no pseudo for him. No political correctness at any point. Carried many articles lashing out at local Dalit icons and Islamic activists. Of course he started off as a fan of LTTE leader Prabhakaran, but at some point jettisoned that baggage, preferring to be seen as a crusader.
Though a Dalit by birth, he would take care not to reveal it himself at point. He would say he didn’t want that identity to be his address, but only his enthusiasm for social justice.
I honestly don’t know where the rot started, but start it did, no doubt. How else will you explain his transition from his hardscrabble life as a blogger to now becoming a big employer himself.
Look what he has to say on the detention of Karthik Govindarajan (click here), the legal correspondent of the Savukku media. “Let us assume Karthik did benefit from the deal. Can he not pay the five lakhs ? Karthick knows very well that I will take care of his needs. I won’t let down my consigliere,” he wrote recently. Wow!!
Subsequently he himself was arrested.
Savukku Shankar now has a car, a driver and an aide as well. That is a phenomenal growth indeed.
The inevitable question is who are funding him. Difficult to say. It could be the diaspora Tamil lobby, or more probably some saffron group.
For the BJP that is desperately itching to get at least a toehold in Tamil Nadu, Savukku type exposes of the DMK government are hugely welcome. Not that he carries any pro-BJP stories.
That despite his three prison terms, he boldly carries on is of course admirable. But you know what, he is also talking openly of starting a party too. That is too much, way too much
Actually we had together brought out a Tamil translation of a long-form article by former Caravan editor Vinod Jose on Narendra Modi, just on the eve of 2014 elections. That was a devastating piece. i don’t think he has changed his position since.
So why would any right-winger back Savukku? One possible explanation is that he concentrates most of his fire on the current DMK government, and that should immensely gladden the saffronites.
Also Read: Come 2024, DMK will surrender to BJP: Savukku Shankar
Beyond that no hypothesis to offer. Whoever is the funder, money flowing in would be in several lacs of rupees. But many websites are funded similarly, so why should one object?
That is also a valid question. But somehow putting in place such a huge machinery, becoming a boss just like that, well it just looks fishy.
He has been taking on his targets with his usual verve, but how authentic his claims are, one can’t say with any certainty. During my interactions, i have found him bang on in many instances, but also totally off the mark in some others.
That despite his three prison terms, he boldly carries on is of course admirable. But you know what, he is also talking openly of starting a party too. That is too much, way too much.
He is being harassed, no doubt, looks like viciously set upon too while in detention. He has been tortured in the past. Judges are hostile.
If still he dares, should it be frowned on? Should he lead a hand-to-mouth existence to the end in the name of principles? No, no way. He has a right to dignity, as every one of us is.
But from an idealist to a chest-thumping YouTuber, possibly carrying on the agenda of dubious elements, that is a transition one has witnessed right down the history of course, but I wouldn’t have expected it of Achimuthu Shankar.
If human rights activists have not raised their voice in support of Shankar, that is perhaps because they are chary.
Independent journalists on YouTube might not exactly be displacing the mainstream, and there is a lot of distrust too of this new age variety. Shankar’s rants would only undermine the one option people could have when subservient print and TV are rapidly losing their credibility.
