VILLUPURAM: An open question by the State higher education minister to a panchayat union chairperson about her caste identity at a public event has irked human rights activists.
“You belong to SC (community), right?” asked minister K Ponmudy to Mugaiyur panchayat chairperson at an event organised to inaugurate a part-time fair price shop at Manampoondi Pudhu Nagar village on Monday.
Speaking at the function held at Kandachipuram block in Villupuram district, the minister said, “The present government is rooted in the ideology of Thanthai Periyar and DMK stalwarts and former CMs Arignar Anna and Kalaignar Karunanidhi. Walking in their footsteps, our CM MK Stalin too is keen on providing social justice to the people of Tamil Nadu. Special schemes have been brought to empower women in the State,” he said.
The minister went on to say that DMK’s Dravidian model of governance ensured that women and people from oppressed communities reached high constitutional posts. “Even your panchayat union chairperson is a woman, and she belongs to an oppressed community,” the minister said and went on to ask the Mugaiyur panchayat chairperson seated on the stage whether she was from SC community. The woman nodded to the question.
The video of the incident went viral on social media and several social activists condemned the minister’s action. Speaking to TNIE, writer Sukirtha Rani said, “The need to single out an SC panchayat chairperson and question her caste is unconstitutional. A higher education minister making such statement is condemnable.”
When asked about the issue, the minister told TNIE, “She is a member of our party and we are more than proud to have made her the panchayat chairperson without discrimination. I was highlighting the work done by Dravidian model government in the meeting, and in order to prove it, I asked her about her caste. Some fringe groups are trying to do politics with my speech.”