Crafting victimhood by pseudo feminism
Exploitation for personal material gain
Moving on to the second stage (Exploiting for material gain), Dharmaraja wrote how his ex-wife and her father tried to extort from him during the proceedings of his case. He told how they ostracised him and led to his mother, who was ‘his staunchest supporter’, committing suicide a day after he collected the chargesheet in the case. Giving credit to his friends who supported him and advocates who gave him pro bono services, Dharmaraja said that he could not have made it through without their support.
“Despite the overwhelming odds, I fought back, thanks to friends who shielded me during my lowest moments, advocates who argued my case pro bono and well-wishers who restored my faith in justice. Their support prevented me from succumbing to despair”, he wrote.
Message for those stuck in similar situations
Refusing to blame Atul Subhash for taking the extreme step, Dharmaraja called him a victim of his circumstances. “To others who suffer institutional abuse, I say: hold on. Truth may be slow but it does prevail”, he said. Dharmajara said that he did not believe in life after death but urged Subhash to convey his message to his mother if he met her in the afterlife.
“Mr Atul Subhash, I don’t believe in life after death, but if you ever get a chance to meet my mother, let her know this: a son of an army jawan father and an illiterate mother, hailing from a remote village, born into a lower-middle-class backward community family, a first-generation graduate, and most importantly, a man who had no prior exposure to the legal system, was able to defeat the daughter of an IIT professor, an influential member of the media mafia, the self-claimed ex-lover of a sitting member of Parliament, a proud secret member of an upper-caste casteist lobby, and a woman who could share breakfast with the sitting Minister of the ruling party,” wrote Dharmaraja.
Dharmaraja dedicated his legal victory to all those ‘who persevere against all odds’. “Women like Ms. Kandasamy, who hide behind false feminism, may deceive the world for a while, but the truth ultimately unmasks them”, he said. Dharmaraja also revealed that he was well-advised by a friend not to come suicide and give in to her tactics as that was what she wanted. He concluded his letter by wishing Subhash peace promising to carry his fight forward. “Take your rest, brother, we will carry the fight forward,” he wrote.
Meena Kandasamy went about character-assassinating her former husband on social media while their case was sub judice. In December 2020, Dharmaraja made a sensational disclosure in a press release stating that Kandasamy had faked her ‘Dalit’ credentials not only to the world but also to his own husband. He said, however, as per official records, the mother of Kandasamy belonged to the forward community while her father was an OBC.