Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday questioned the “mystery” behind the alliance between the PMK and the BJP, when the former speaks of social justice and the latter “tolls the death knell for social justice”.
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At an election meeting to canvass for the INDIA bloc’s Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri candidates R. Mani (DMK) and K. Gopinath (Congress) respectively, Mr. Stalin asked whether “the venerable Dr. Ramadoss (PMK founder), who champions the call for caste census, secured a guarantee from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on the same? Did he ask Mr. Modi why did he not initiate the census during his term now,” Mr. Stalin asked.
According to him, the BJP was antithetical to every social justice goal espoused by the PMK in its manifesto and the PMK workers were equally pained by the alliance. The only national party that has promised a caste census and the subsequent increase in reservation is the Congress, he said.
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Explaining that only the Union government could carry out a census, while the State government can only carry out a survey, Mr. Stalin said, “The PMK founder was fully aware of this, and yet chose an opportunistic alliance.”
Flipping through the pages of history on Vanniyar reservation from a constituency that played a pivotal role in the 1987 struggle and that the PMK sees as its turf, Mr. Stalin reminded the party of “how it was crushed under the AIADMK”, leaving 21 persons dead. “Some people have forgotten the history,” Mr. Stalin said, adding that after the DMK came to power in 1989, within 43 days, DMK leader M. Karunanidhi invited Dr. Ramadoss and passed orders for according 20% reservation to the Vanniyars and other Most Backward Classes.
Under the DMK, the families of the 21 persons were given a compensation of ₹3 lakh and, to date, they collect a pension of ₹3,000, he said. “These 30 years of reservation lit up the lives of Vanniyar families...”
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Dr. Ramadoss himself had recollected this during the Vanniyar Sangam Silver Jubilee celebrations, wherein he invited Kalaignar and thanked him for the reservation, Mr. Stalin said. “Now, what has changed for Dr. Ramadoss to align with the BJP, a party that toppled the V.P. Singh government over the Mandal Commission in 1989, systematically crushed social justice by whittling away at reservation, and is scheming to dismantle reservation totally,” Mr. Stalin asked.
He further said AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami, until his party’s rift with the BJP, played second fiddle to the Union government, “bartering away the State’s rights”.
According to the Chief Minister, fear of electoral defeat had gripped Mr. Modi; hence, he decided to reduce LPG prices on Women’s Day after steadily hiking it for 10 years.
On Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman’s remarks that she was not contesting in the election as she had no money, Mr. Stalin wondered what happened to ₹12,000 crore that the BJP had received in electoral bonds. “Did they refuse to give her a share,” he asked.