How soft porn is playing out in Tamil Nadu election politics

Poll-bound Tamil Nadu is witnessing a brand new set of weapons being wielded by rival political parties - particularly the ruling AIADMK: the compromising, sleazy videos of contesting leaders caught in the moment.

Whether they are shot on the sly or have been recorded as extortion tools to extract the pound of flesh this election time, is perhaps a secondary question. What is really disheartening is the fact that open blackmailing and peddling of sleaze is exactly what Tamil Nadu election campaign has deteriorated into, as if distribution of free mobile phones and liquor was not enough.

The two party-run propaganda-spreading news channels, owned by AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and DMK honcho M Karunanidhi respectively, have been trading charges at each other, in a desperate bid to get the strings of Tamil Nadu into their hands. But how will the ordinary voters respond to this mindless mud-slinging? This is an unsavoury low for the southern state.