CHENNAI: In the past few days, a marriage assistance scheme that has been implemented in Tamil Nadu for five decades and in three BJP-ruled States has become a cudgel with which to beat the opposition DMK on social media.
Certain social media handles associated with the BJP have alleged that the scheme promises assistance to Dalit men who marry Hindu women and will cause tensions in society.
However, the manifesto merely promises to rename the scheme (currently named after Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy), aimed at couples in which one spouse belongs to an SC or ST community, after party patriarch M Karunanidhi's mother Anjugam Ammal and increase the financial support to Rs 60,000 and 8 grams of 22-carat gold. Currently, it offers 8 gms of gold and Rs 25,000 for non-graduates and Rs 50,000 for graduates.
Nonetheless, the misinformation went viral on Twitter, after a user with the handle @Mahesh10816 tweeted the following three days ago: “In DMKs manifesto 2021, NO 259, page 73 If any boy belonging to SC / ST caste marries a girl of other Hindu castes, he will get Rs 60000 and 8 grams of Gold as incentive This is going to incite caste clashes in TN instead of healing the wounds.”
Mahesh, who is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has claimed to be a BJP functionary working in Salem.
His post was retweeted by hundreds of followers and several other Right-leaning supporters have been sharing similar messages and expressing the fear that caste Hindu girls would be abducted and married by Dalit men to avail of this assistance. Similar rhetoric was also deployed by the PMK in the aftermath of the Dharmapuri caste violence in 2012.
Finally, DMK’s Rajya Sabha MPs RS Bharathi and NR Elango addressed reporters and said they had urged the Election Commission to take action against persons spreading false news about a scheme that has been implemented in the State for five decades.
Meanwhile, DMK and progressive Twitter handles have pointed out that similar schemes are not only implemented by BJP-ruled governments in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat state governments, but also by the Union government.
The Central government scheme, executed by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, called the Dr. Ambedkar Scheme for Social Integration through Inter-Caste Marriages and offers a cash incentive of Rs 2.5 lakh. In Karnataka, Rs 2.5 lakh for men and Rs 3 lakh for women is offered while in Gujarat, the assistance of Rs 50,000 is offered. Madhya Pradesh offers Rs 2 lakh as an incentive. Union government data show that 1.2 lakh beneficiaries received Central assistance from 2013 -2014 to 2020. Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, all ruled by the BJP, disbursed the highest amount to the beneficiaries.
In Tamil Nadu, the scheme is implemented under two categories. The first for when either of the spouses is from an SC or ST community while the second is for when one of the spouses is from a forward class community and the other is from a BC or MBC community.