Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief and actor Vijay addresses a crowd in Nagapattinam district. File
| Photo Credit: M. Moorthy
An impleading petition has been filed by a political party in the Madras High Court in support of actor C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), claiming that well-established political parties in the State always try to muzzle dissent and do not let new parties grow.The petitioner, Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi (DMSK), headed by its president M.L. Ravi, has urged the High Court to permit it to be included as one of the parties to a petition filed by the TVK against the “onerous” conditions being imposed by the Tamil Nadu police on Mr. Vijay’s campaign across the State, so that it could also assist the court.The party, through its counsel A.P. Suryaprakasam, contended that since 2016, it has been striving to reflect the problems faced by the poor and downtrodden, whose voice seldom gets heard by those in power.Alleging that well-established political parties had amassed huge wealth after enjoying power at the Centre as well as in the State on multiple occasions, it said that these parties always attempt to create hurdles for smaller parties that try to expose their corrupt deeds.“They act as a big banyan tree under which no small plants can survive. At every available opportunity, they try to prevent the opposition political party from criticising the ruling party and the Ministers. They abuse the official machinery to act as per their whims and fancies,” the affidavit said.The petitioner alleged that the TVK was a budding political party that was being threatened directly and indirectly through colourable exercise of power. “The ruling party in Tamil Nadu is using its might to strangle the voice of the opposition and thereby attempting to crush democracy,” he alleged.Claiming that the targeting of the TVK by singling it out could be proved through the “oppressive” conditions being imposed on its leader, it said, adding that Mr. Vijay was not being allowed to speak for more than 30 minutes in any meeting and a cap was being fixed on the number of people who could gather for his campaign.“The Tamil Nadu Police is acting like a wing of the ruling DMK and they don’t adopt the same yardstick for ruling party meetings. Dissent is the essence of democracy and the act of the police in imposing onerous conditions on TVK party alone... should not be encouraged since it could be done to others too in the future,” the affidavit read.The DSMK urged the court to allow it to get impleaded in the TVK’s case so that it could demonstrate how the court’s insistence on making caution deposits before conducting public meetings, processions, and so on would be detrimental to smaller political parties, though it may not matter much to parties with great amount of wealth. Published - September 22, 2025 04:34 pm IST
