Even A Dog Can Get A BA Degree Due To Dravidian Movement Says DMK's RS Bharathi; Annamalai Says Remarks Insult Entire Student Community

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tamil Nadu state president K Annamalai came down heavily on senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and former Rajya Sabha MP R S Bharathi for his controversial remarks during a protest organised by his party against NEET.

Stating that the Dravidian movement was the reason for people in Tamil Nadu having widespread access to education, Bharathi said that the situation today was such that even a dog could get a BA degree.

He had said, “I am a lawyer B.L educated, Ezhilarasan (referring to the Kanchipuram MLA) is BE, BL. All these did not come from clan or gotra. If it was not for the alms of the Dravidian movement and communal GO, so many doctors and so many people with B.E degrees would not have come.

"When I studied BA, only one person in the town had studied BA. Then they will write the title on the name board outside the house. Now everyone in the town is studying for a degree, even a dog is getting a BA degree. Dravidian movement is responsible for this development.”

Condemning the remarks, Annamalai wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that Bharathi's statements had insulted the entire student community and that it was wrong to portray that the success of students was because of some favour being done by the DMK.

Further, he alleged that the DMK, which had opened just 5 medical colleges in the state, was going around town stating that it was responsible for increasing the number of doctors in the state.

This is not the first time that Bharathi has made such controversial remarks.

While criticising Governor R N Ravi, he had stated that if Naga people who eat 'dog meat' had the guts to drive him away, the people of Tamil Nadu who eat salt with their food would be much more gutsy.

The remarks received widespread condemnation.