Arunthathiyars want parties to allot one seat each in LS polls

Arunthathiyars comprise seven castes out of 76 castes identified as SCs in State

Arunthathiyars, who were given an exclusive three per cent quota in education and employment within the existing 18 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SC), want all major political parties to allot one seat each to their community in the Lok Sabha polls.

In the past 15 years, only a few from the community have been MPs, which is represented by 57 members in Parliament. [39 in Lok Sabha, 18 seats in Rajya Sabha].

Valasai E.Ravichandran, founder-president of the Arunthathi Makkal Katchi, says a study revealed that since 1977, each newly elected Assembly had two or three MLAs belonging to the Arunthathiyars, who comprise seven castes out of a total of 76 castes identified as SCs in the State. [According to the 2001 Census, Arunthathiyars, whose population was about 18.6 lakh, constituted 15.7 per cent of the SC population].

In the current House, Assembly Speaker P. Dhanpal and A.A. Karuppasamy of Avinashi are the two MLA belonging to the community.

Mr. Ravichandran points out that it was only after exclusive reservation was created that more candidates belonging to the community were admitted to engineering and medical courses. Likewise, in employment, the presence of the community has gone up in different departments in the last five years.

Describing the demand as legitimate, D. Ravikumar, former MLA of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, however, says the basic problem lies in reluctance on the part of the political class as a whole in providing representation to SCs beyond what has been constitutionally mandated. Rarely, established parties field their SC members in general constituencies.

Another factor to be considered is that except the Nilgiris, there is no reserved constituency in the western districts of the State but it is in this region that the Arunthathiyars are concentrated.

P. Sampath, Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and State president of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, who recalled the sustained agitation of the CPI (M) and the Front for the three per cent quota, agrees that there has to be higher political representation.