MP uses social media for people’s causes

Senthil Kumar has reasonable success in an online fund raiser he had launched last month to send Priyanka Kalidass, a 17-year-old chess player from Coimbatore, to the next level in her game. In a fortnight, the MP’s online appeal with the handle #sponsor_priyanka_chess# has helped generate Rs 1.2 lakh.

On Sunday, the Dharmapuri MP, who shot to fame after defeating PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, tweeted that the 60th person had contributed Rs 2,000 to support the teen chess prodigy. Late last month, Senthil had won the appreciation of netizens for coming to the rescue of a financially distressed person badly in need of pacemaker surgery at Vellore CMC Hospital in his constituency.

The timely medical help was made possible only after he had responded to Twitter appeal from there. In fact, Senthil had started putting social media to good use barely a fortnight after his election.

Early in June, the Dharmapuri MP had connected with his social media friends by organising a chat over coffee in the state capital. He had organised similar get together eliciting views of active netizens over coffee in a few other cities during the couple of months. Surprisingly, the MP does not restrict his social media use to posting soft stuff. He had exercised no restrain in even criticizing a judge of the Kerala High Court for his controversial remark. “Sad state of affairs. Strongly condemn the Kerala HC judge Justice V Chitambaresh for this discriminatory remark. It is against Constitution of India which guarantees every Indian equality before law, no discrimination based on caste, creed and religion,” he tweeted on July 23.

Unsurprisingly, his no-holds-barred approach and active performance online comes with a few disadvantages as well. The MP also had to respond to a photograph posted by his political rivals, who accused him of napping in the Parliament. Senthil responded to it saying that the rivals shall have their share of fun online and he would reveal the truth after a few days. He was learnt to have been skimming through a few papers, a video grab of which appeared as if he was caught napping.