Dalit Community Pulls Up DMK For Silence Over BSP Leader's Murder

The carefully made-up mask that the DMK has been wearing is coming off at the seams. The ruling party in Tamil Nadu is facing a huge backlash over caste politics.

This week, the Dravidian party's Dalit leaders were called out by filmmaker Pa Ranjith for refusing to speak up on the issue of the murder of the state BSP leader K Armstrong.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), the Dalit party that is part of the DMK alliance, also came in for a blast from many at the rally organised to pay homage to the slain Armstrong.

Emotions rang high at the rally as the Dalit leaders and workers couldn't hold back their views as what followed the brutal murder of Armstrong had hit them hard. The fact that a strong Dalit leader could be scythed to death in a public place itself was a terrible blow for them.

Subsequently, various stories about Armstrong were let loose, and this further made the Dalits feel alienated and targeted.

The day before the rally, in a strange video note, the VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan laid the rule that his partymen should not participate in it (rally). He didn't stop with that, he also dropped words to the effect that those who were participating in that rally were paid mercenaries.

This was a loaded and unfortunate suggestion and was aimed at his own Dalit brethren. Him going out of his way to support the DMK — whose record in safeguarding Dalit interests over the past three years has been found severely lacking — further queered the pitch.

Chennai Mayor and Adi Dravida Minister get called out

The cynosure at the rally was Ranjith who has emerged as a respected and reliable voice of the Dalits. He, typically, did not pull punches. Scathing the Dalit leaders in the Dravidian parties for not turning up to pay respect to Armstrong, Ranjith asked them whether their parties were precluding them from speaking. 

Specifically naming DMK's Chennai Mayor R Priya, Ranjith pointed out: "You are Chennai’s Mayor not because of the DMK, but because of reservation (reserved seats).

To DMK minister Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, Ranjith said: "Please understand why you are the Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare. Why are you all scared? Can you not speak in support of Dalits?”

On the attempts to paint Armstrong as a gangster, Ranjith said if the fighting efforts of the Dalits against oppression are deemed as criminal activity, then (pointing to the gathered people) "you are all criminals."  

Ranjith also upped the ante and hit out at the foundation of Dravidian politics, by saying that the Dalits have been given a short shrift since the days of the Justice Party (the precursor to the Dravidian parties). This particular line of criticism seems to have rattled the Dravidian sections (the DMK).

For long the party and its megaphone have been vociferously claiming that it is the Dravidian movement that has been fighting for the uplift of the Dalits. Whenever Dalit leaders were bold to come down on the DMK, they were shouted out or cynically co-opted into their own ranks.

The Justice Party was no different

In the 1950s, Dalit leaders like MC Rajah had taken the pains to point out that the intermediary castes (non-Brahmin) which made up the Justice Party were not helping the Dalits in any manner.

"It has been clearly pointed out that so early in the history of the reforms in Southern India, the non-Brahman Caste Hindu Party in the local council, who posed as the guardians of the depressed classes, has been not only practically arresting the progress of a community which forms the backbone of the labouring population, but has also been crushing its hopes and aspirations," he wrote in his book The Oppressed Hindus (pdf).

But the Dravidian leaders quickly closed ranks and ensured that voices like Rajah's were kept muted. Other Dalit leaders who were more favourably inclined towards the Dravidian movements were platformed. This has been the trend all along.

Even as recently as the late 90s and early 2000s, leaders like VCK's Thirmuvalavan and his associate Ravikumar (a Lok Sabha MP) were critical of both the Dravidian movement and its totem EV Ramaswamy. But again, the party and its leaders were won over by political and possibly other means, and now VCK has become such an ally to the DMK that it does not mind antagonising its Dalit backers.

Thirumavalavan's video message to his cadre was loaded and upset the other Dalits, who hitherto had respect for him. Even a party like the Congress sent a representative to the rally for Armstrong.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s (TNCC) SC wing leader, MP Ranjan Kumar, who was at the rally, said the Congress would not be anyone’s slave. That a Dalit party like the VCK did not have the gumption to say as much is a big disappointment for Ranjith and others. 

Dalits looking for a new platform 

The mood among the Dalits now is to come up with a new organisation for themselves, which would fight for their rights and against systemic and structural inequalities without in any way compromising on political lines.

This line of thinking has come as a bolt to the DMK which had projected itself as a champion of the depressed classes. Having its bluff called out now, the DMK's online warriors are targeting Ranjith and others on social media. But the pushback to them has been firm and forthright.

Amidst these developments, the news that Kalanidhi Veerasamy, a DMK dynast politician and Lok Sabha MP from North Chennai — a locality believed to be dominated by Dalits — participated in an international convention of the Kamma community, has kicked up a storm.

At the convention held in Hyderabad, the son of Arcot Veerasamy (a man deemed as close to M Karunanidhi) spoke in glowing terms about the influence of Telugu people in TN politics.

His participation in a caste convention while the Dalits are up in arms in the state has come as a double whammy of trouble for the DMK.