Thread by @sandhyaravishan

Let me tell you what happened in 2017 when I was briefly employed with a Tamil news channel. #thread

#Anitha took her life. Obviously the newsroom went crazy. Channel boss wanted full live, hammer, tongs, the works. #neet (1/n)

So began the circus. I panicked, ran to PCR & asked everyone to dial it down. Explained copycat suicides to channel boss. Asked anchors, PCR team to stay calm, don't sensationalize, put out suicide prevention helpline numbers. Went ok for a bit. (2/n)

Then as I watch, full live of body of that child in a freezer box on air. Anchors, reporters heaving, shouting high pitched rhetoric. My pleas were ignored. This went on for days. More kids died by their own hand. Ripple effect. But the circus wouldn't stop. (3/n)

Many years later, some of these same people who were then my colleagues decided to launch a smear campaign. They said I was a brahmin who tried not to allow Anitha's story to go on air. A publication claiming to be journalistic even carried these lies. (4/n)

Of course that daft reporter didn't think it was important to get my version of things. Now cut to today. The govt lost its nerve after one more student took her life this morning. Bureaucrats were helter skelter trying to salvage the situation. (5/n)

Tamil channels seem to have been told not to play up the story today. The usual suspects pretended it never happened. The same people who howled to the heavens when Anitha died suddenly now realise that copycat suicides do happen. It's real. (6/n)

Old channel boss is especially silent. If these people have understood that playing politics over dead bodies of children has consequences, good for them. Doesn't matter whether the advice came from the DMK or from silly ol' me. Fin. (n/n)