Anti-Dalit politics in TN: PMK’s backward caste consolidation in trouble

The PMK’s designs of backward caste political mobilisation by evoking anti-Dalit sentiments in Tamil Nadu seem to have backfired with the chief minister J Jayalalithaa threatening stern action and other political parties supporting the Dalit cause.

Jayalalithaa was quite upfront and unequivocal in naming the PMK and the Vanniyar (the caste that serves as the party’s electoral catchment) Sangham for inciting violence against the Dalits near Mahabalipuram on Thursday. She said the PMK workers consumed liquor, invaded the Dalit village, burned down huts and set on fire government vehicles defying appeals by the police.

She said the government would invoke Goonda’s Act against people who incite violence and also said that a case has been filed against the PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss for violating the conditions of permission for his meeting in Mahabalipuram.

On Thursday, the workers of PMK and the Vanniyar Sangham, who were on their way to a rally in Mahabalipuram, allegedly entered a Dalit village at Marakkanam on the East Coast Road between Chennai and Mahabalipuram and unleashed violence and arson. They burned down Dalit houses and set on fire government buses.

The PMK, which has a 7-8 percent vote-share in the state, doesn’t hide the fact that it stands for the interests of the Vanniyar caste and that it’s avowedly anti-Dalit. In view of the impending Lok Sabha elections, the party has intensified its anti-Dalit pitch in the recent past by evoking paranoia and insecurity among backward castes.

It said the Dalit boys were trapping backward caste girls in love-marriages and that the SC/ST Act was being misused. In November last, the party was accused of large-scale violence in Dharmapuri in western Tamil Nadu where three Dalit villages were gutted down over an inter-caste marriage.

As Firstpost had noted earlier, Ramadoss wants to expand his backward caste vote-base beyond the Vanniyars and hence has been fuelling the anti-Dalit sentiments of the OBC and MBCs. He had said that he wouldn’t align with neither of the Dravidian parties - the DMK and the AIADMK - nor national parties. He wanted to go it alone and hence the strategy of consolidating the backward caste support.

However, the strategy of polarisation seems to have fallen flat at the inception itself. While Ramadoss and PMK have invited the ire of the public and the government with the Dharmapuri and Marakkanam incidents, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), the Dalit party that the PMK is antagonistic to, has been able to mobilise support from mainstream political parties and the media.

Immediately after the Marakkanam incident, the VCK leader Thirumavalavan has been able to get on his side the DMK leader M Karunanidhi, the DMDK leader Vijayakanth, MDMK leader Vaiko and the Left parties. Reportedly, he is also trying to meet Jayalalithaa for her support. The VCK is planning a rally against the violence and wants the parties to share the stage with him.

Jayalalithaa’s stern warning will certainly hamper the anti-Dalit and pan-OBC momentum that the PMK would’ve wanted to generate for the Lok Sabha elections. As in the past, it’s based on irrational hatred and violence. Thirumavalavan has charged time and again that Ramadoss’s designs are political and his only aim is to make his son and former union minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, a member of parliament.

Ramadoss has been quite cavalier in his approach. He said the PMK will lead the winning front in the state in the elections and that he will get at least 10 parliament seats.

By taking a tough stand against him and the PMK, Jayalalithaa has - at least for now — made it clear that she wants to keep the party at arms length. On the other hand, being tough against the PMK and supportive to the Dalits can be politically beneficial to her.

About 19 percent of the state’s population is Dalits and their votes are usually split across various parties. Even a minor Dalit consolidation will be great for the AIADMK. By holding the PMK responsible for Thursday’s violence, Jayalalithaa has made it clear that her sympathies are with the Dalits.

The PMK, for the time being, is certainly isolated. Tough government action will ensure that it cannot freewheel with its politics of hatred. If the same situation persists, the PMK’s grand scheme of wholesale caste-politics will be half-baked quite early in the game even if it has Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son for inspiration and support.