Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

“UPA government has not helped the Dalits”

VELLORE: The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has failed to implement the assurances given to Dalits in its election manifesto for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. It did not implement the assurances contained in the common minimum programme (CMP) evolved after the elections, according to C.K. Thamizharasan, State president of the Republican Party of India (RPI), which is supporting the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance in the May 13 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu.

Talking to newspersons here on Saturday, Mr. Thamizharasan said that though reservation for Dalits in the private sector was one of the assurances contained in the UPA election manifesto for 2004, the UPA government has not taken even a single step towards fulfilling the assurance. Whenever a Dalit MP raised the question in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used to give a standard reply that the demand would be considered. But whenever he participated in meetings of industrialists in Mumbai, he would assure them that reservation for Dalits in the private sector would not be imposed on the industries.

“This doublespeak has deprived Dalits of their livelihood rights. Lakhs of Dalits remain unemployed today. The UPA government has not honoured its assurances given in the CMP, which includes a special component plan for Dalits, promotion of self-employment among Dalits and increasing employment opportunities for the Dalits in the rural areas,” Mr. Thamizharasan said.

In three years of its rule in Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government had failed to provide the basic Constitutional protection to the Dalits. Though it was seven months since a case was registered against Tourism Minister Suresh Rajan under the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act 1989 and the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act 1956 on a complaint by a Dalit revenue divisional officer of Kanyakumari district that the Minister scolded him using his caste name, no action had been taken by the government . “This is a violation of the Constitution. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has gone to the defence of the Minister by saying that he would not have spoken like that,” Mr. Thamizharasan said. The decision of the Tamil Nadu government to provide three per cent internal reservation to Arundadhiyars from the 18 per cent quota for the SC was a Constitutional violation, for the government had no right to provide such internal reservation. The government had not also honoured the assurance it had given to the Madras High Court that it would clear the backlog in filling vacancies against reservations for Dalits in the various departments in a phased manner. These were the reasons for the RPI deciding to support the AIADMK-led alliance, he said.

Mr. Thamizharasan said that among the 80 lakh Dalit voters in Tamil Nadu, on an average, about 65 lakh exercised their franchise every election. These Dalits were today functioning with the unanimous aim of defeating the Congress and the DMK in Tamil Nadu. The Dalit vote bank is a powerful vote bank which can decide who will form the next government at the Centre. This unity among the Dalits will create a political change in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Mr. Thamizharasan condemned the raids by the police and revenue officials in the house of the AIADMK candidate for the Karur constituency and former Union Minister M. Thambithurai and in a hospital owned by an AIADMK activist in Chennai on an alleged complaint that money and gifts were kept there for distribution to voters. The officials however could not find anything on the premises. “These acts of the DMK government only showed that the DMK is afraid of facing defeat in the elections”. The DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance was planning to seize thousands of polling stations during the elections, and therefore the RPI wanted the Election Commission to provide protection by para-military forces in the vulnerable booths, he said.

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