Take back all defamation cases, DMK tells TN govt

A day after the Supreme Court gave a breather to ultra-Left folk singer Kovan and DMDK chief Vijayakanth by disallowing pleas of the Tamil Nadu government, DMK treasurer M K Stalin today said the state should withdraw all the pending defamation cases.
"Tamil Nadu government should come forward to withdraw all the pending defamation cases," he said, adding "the state has no other way out to ease itself out of people's anger and the apex court's censure."
Referring to the apex court disallowing the state's pleas, Stalin said in a Facebook post that the (AIADMK) government should come out of its "vision glitch" of viewing even "reasonable criticism as defamation and sedition."

"In a democracy, it is the basic duty of opposition parties and the media to point out the mistakes and failures of the government," he said.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea of the Tamil Nadu government seeking two-day police custody of Kovan facing sedition charges, stating that it did not find any merit over the appeal.
Similarly, it extended its stay on the summons by a court to DMDK chief Vijayakanth on a criminal defamation complaint against him by the Tamil Nadu government over his remarks linked to alleged Aavin milk pilferage scam.