COIMBATORE: No one will get Arunthathiyar votes this time. That is what Athi Tamizhar Peravai has resolved: steer clear of the elections. Their bone of contention is that not even a single Arunthathiyar candidate is in the contest for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
The peravai general secretary Suba Elangovan told Express that Arunthathiyars were always at the receiving end and their voice, against the atrocities meted out to them by upper caste people mostly in rural Tamil Nadu, was still unheard by the powers-that-be.
Discrimination and deprivation have become quite common in rural areas, he said, and added that this social evil had gone unchecked as a result of which the caste Hindus continued to ill-treat the suppressed class.
“We were shocked to learn thatArunthathiyars have been neglected from being nominated a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections. Political leaders speaking about equality hold no water as they have least concern for the welfare of the Dalits,” Elangovan said, adding that Parayar, a sub-sect of Dalit, seized a major pie in getting seats in the seven reserved constituencies of Chidambaram, Cuddalore, Tenkasi, Nagapattinam, Kanchipuram and Nilgiris.
He said that the panel headed by former Supreme Court judge Kuldip Singh for delimitation of constituencies failed to do justice since it gave importance to Parayar sect. The Arunthathiyar-dominant Rasipuram and Pollachi, which were reserved constituencies, have been removed after delimitation exercise and five reserve constituencies now have been allotted to Parayar-dominant northern districts. While Tenkasi was allotted for Pallar, Nilgiris was allotted for Arunthathiyar. The communtiy was under the impression that an Arunthathiyar would be fielded from Nilgiris. To their chagrin, A Raja, a Parayar, was fielded by the DMK.