Chennai sources stated that “Let my daughter be the last victim of the banner culture”, pleaded Subhasri’s father when DMK president Stalin visited the grieving family to condole her gruesome death after being hit by a loose banner and run over by a speeding truck from behind.
Meanwhile Stalin had already issued a diktat to party members not to erect banners and the ruling AIADMK too did likewise; yet, the culture of banners and flags on road medians is unlikely to disappear in Tamilnadu a state where the Dravidian politics has always had a close liaison with Kollywood and took inspiration from its MGR-Sivaji multi-color banners of massive proportions to create its own giant flex banners for its ‘revolutionary’ and ‘litterateur’ leaders. In fact, most of these political leaders have been imported from the movie world and more are waiting in the queue.
Noted lawyer sudha Ramalingam said “This terrible banner culture will not disappear in a hurry in our state, thanks to our political class that has its roots in cinema. You still see the horrible scenes of the fan clubs performing milk abhishekams to their hero’s giant cut-outs. Perhaps from there have descended the banners and cut-outs of the political thalaivars and thalaivees; you saw the cut-outs of Jayalalitha that were 80 feet tall”.
