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Indian Express
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
For Tamil Nadu polls, PMK zeroes in on Vanniyar sub-quota to rally its base
In a show of strength, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has warned the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government of 'extensive and historic protests' over its failure to implement 10.5% internal reservation for the Vanniyar community. 'If 2,000 (Vanniyar) youth manage to canvass 50 votes each in a constituency, we can win in at least 50 Assembly seats,' PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss said at the once-in-12-years Chithirai Muzhu Nilavu Vanniyar Youth Conference near Mamallapuram on Sunday. 'But I know many are not working hard. Your work is being monitored. If you want to do real estate business, please do it. But you won't have your position in the party,' he said. Frustration about the DMK government's failure to secure internal reservation within the Most Backward Classes (MBC) quota has become a rallying cry for the PMK ahead of the Assembly elections next year. 'We met the Chief Minister so many times. He welcomed us and assured us he would implement reservation,' said PMK president Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, the son of the party founder, referring to promises CM M K Stalin made in the early years of his term. 'Suddenly, he changed his opinion. For two years, he assured us… This is a big betrayal,' Anbumani added. PMK leaders insisted the state did not need to wait for a Central caste census to restore the quota. 'Does the Tamil Nadu government have no power to take a caste survey?' Anbumani asked. 'Then, how did your father and MGR (AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran) do it? How was the Sattanathan Commission formed by your father? And how did the Ambasankar Commission do door-to-door enumeration?' But Sunday's event was more than a political protest. It marked the reassertion of the PMK's foundational strategy: street mobilisation, high-octane rhetoric, and caste solidarity. The Vanniyar Sangam's flag was hoisted remotely by Ramadoss, followed by a drone show, documentary screenings on Vanniyar icons, and 14 resolutions, most of them echoing the long-standing demand for proportionate representation. Among the key demands of the PMK are: a caste survey by the state government, an increase in Scheduled Caste reservation by 2%, removal of the 50% quota cap, and the creation of separate corporations for every community within the Backwad Class (BC) and MBC categories, modelled on Andhra Pradesh's example. The resolutions also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing a caste census and expressed support for India's military actions in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Behind the political messaging, there was a subtext of internal tension, too. Despite sharing the stage, Ramadoss and Anbumani continued their uneasy co-leadership, with speakers notably refraining from addressing either as party president. 'I will change you or I will appoint someone to remove you,' the elder Ramadoss warned from the dais, adding, 'The party is because of my hard work. I did not have the money to run the party then. Now you are driving luxury cars.' Anbumani, seated beside him, grinned. But in his speech, the former Union Minister praised his father, reminding people about Ramadoss senior's fight for the welfare of Vanniyars for the last 45 years. This generational strain sits atop a party built on confrontation. In the 1980s, the PMK's political rise was cemented by aggressive agitation tactics. The Vanniyar reservation movement — 20% reservation in education and state services — shut down road and rail traffic in northern Tamil Nadu. Protesters blocked highways by cutting state-owned trees along village borders, a tactic that gave rise to leaders like 'Kaduvetti' J Guru (literally, 'tree cutter'), now memorialised with a statue in Trichy. A weeklong road blockade in September 1987, combined with earlier agitations and violent clashes, eventually led to the division of the OBC category into the Backward Classes and the Most Backward Classes by the DMK regime in 1989. Vanniyars were granted MBC status, ensuring them a share in the newly carved out 20% quota. But the community's demand for a further sub-quota never disappeared. In February 2021, just minutes before the Election Commission was to announce the Assembly poll dates, the AIADMK government passed a bill granting 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyars, widely seen as a last-minute gambit to retain PMK in the NDA alliance. The reservation was carved from the existing MBC quota and framed as temporary, pending a caste-based census. The move backfired as it angered other MBC groups, including Thevars and Gounders, and was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court. The DMK, on assuming office, tried to strike a conciliatory tone. In July 2021, Stalin announced the construction of a Rs 4 crore memorial in Villupuram for Vanniyars killed in the 1987 protests. Yet, the PMK's track record remains marred by its fraught relationship with Dalits, especially in districts such as Dharmapuri and Villupuram, with notorious riots targeting Dalit villages and inter-caste tensions. Critics accuse the party of fanning casteism under the garb of social justice. In a 2013 public statement, Ramadoss infamously blamed Tamil cinema for inspiring Dalit boys to marry outside their caste, lamenting the plight of BC girls. The party, founded in 1989, emerged from the embers of the anti-Brahmin and pro-reservation movements, and at present commands influence among the Vanniyars, still the largest OBC community in the state, estimated to constitute around 25% of the population. Once a significant player in Tamil Nadu politics with 18 Assembly seats in 2006, the PMK has seen a steep electoral decline over the past two decades. From influencing alliance formations and shaping caste-based reservation debates, the party now finds itself increasingly marginalised. In 2024, it failed to win even a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls, reflecting a sharp fall from relevance and underscoring how a once-potent caste-based force has been reduced to a peripheral presence in the state's political landscape.
India Today
12-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
NDA ally demands caste survey in Tamil Nadu, show of strength at conference
In a powerful display of political revival and community mobilisation, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) president Anbumani Ramadoss led the Chithirai Muzhu Nilavu Vanniyar Youth Conference near Mahabalipuram on Sunday.'Every year, for thousands of years, our community has been celebrating Chithirai Full Moon celebrations in the place which was ruled by us. This time, we're here not just to celebrate, but to demand a caste survey,' Anbumani declared to an audience he claimed ran into lakhs. 'We thank Prime Minister Modi for announcing the caste census. But what we need is micro-level data, like what Bihar did. That will only come if the Tamil Nadu government conducts its own survey under the Indian Statistical Act, 2008.'advertisement'Though the Union government has decided, our man has not decided yet,' Anbumani said, taking a dig at Chief Minister MK Stalin. He slammed Chief Minister MK Stalin for 'misleading the Assembly' by claiming that the state lacked the authority to conduct a caste survey. 'How are Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra and Odisha able to do it then? Is Tamil Nadu in China or Japan?' he asked, drawing loud cheers from the also called Chief Minister Stalin's current stance a betrayal and accused him of lying in Assembly. He asked how during the earlier regimes, both MGR and Stalin's father Karunanidhi were able to undertake caste-based data collection. 'If that is so, how did your father conduct the survey? How did MGR initiate door-to-door enumeration?'Questioning the ideological stance of the ruling party, Anbumani said, 'Lies are being propagated in the Assembly and outside. Isn't your ideology to provide for the underprivileged? Of the 115 communities in most backward classes, 114 comes to 6.8% while Vanniyar community comes up to 18%. It is not just enough to talk about Social Justice alone. You are not qualified to speak about Social Justice. The Chief Minister is lying that he does not have the authority,' Anbumani lashed out at the DMK government and the chief accused successive Dravidian parties of treating the Vanniyar community — one of the largest in Tamil Nadu — as just a vote bank. 'You remember us during elections. In 1957, 14 of DMK's 15 winning seats were in Vanniyar constituencies. Even today, there are 23 Vanniyar MLAs in the Assembly. Yet we still live in hutments and work as daily wagers,' he declared that 'extensive and historic protests' would be announced if the 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyars was not implemented, adding that the community was ready to make 'any sacrifice necessary.'RESOLUTION AND POLITICAL SIGNALSAt the conference, PMK passed 14 resolutions, most focused on reservations. One demanded a separate caste survey by the state to supplement the Union government's caste census, arguing that without it, Tamil Nadu's unique 69% reservation quota could come under legal threat.'Without data, we will never know who is actually benefiting from reservations,' said Anbumani. 'If I were Chief Minister, my first order would be to conduct a caste survey. Lies are being propagated both inside and outside the Assembly. You cannot claim to stand for social justice while denying data and fair quotas.'He also called for extending reservations to the private sector, especially in Group B and C jobs that are increasingly outsourced, and proposed revenue-sharing models for land acquisition. 'If I decide to build a ten-lane highway, I will make the landowner a stakeholder, not hand it over to Adani or Ambani. Why should only they benefit?' he asked, taking aim at big criticised the DMK for failing to act on the recommendations of the Janardhanan Commission, which had suggested 13.1% internal reservation for the Vanniyar community, even while accepting similar recommendations for Arunthathiyars and JUSTICE, NOT JUST INFRASTRUCTURE'This is not a show of strength, this is a call for justice,' Anbumani declared, addressing the massive turnout. 'Lakhs of my brothers and sisters have gathered here because they are fed up. The Vanniyar community and other backward classes have been repeatedly sidelined by the DMK government, which has no real concern for social justice.'He criticised the state's development priorities, stating, 'Real development isn't about malls, tech parks, smart cities, or highways. It's about empowering people through education and employment—and that is the core demand of this conference.' Stressing that the demand for a caste survey has been consistent for two years, he warned that protests would only intensify until the state government founder S Ramadoss issued a warning of 'extensive and historic protests' unless the state government acted on Vanniyar internal reservations. 'The community is ready to make any sacrifice,' he said, while also warning party office-bearers of consequences if their performance didn't internal power tussles and questions over his leadership, Anbumani struck a defiant and ambitious note. 'Until now, we've been a community that gives petitions. It's time we become the community that receives them.'TAKING AIM AT ACTOR-POLITICIAN VIJAYAnbumani warned young voters against 'those who speak cinema dialogues,' in a veiled swipe at actor-turned-politician Vijay. 'Don't go behind anyone else. Come behind me. I live for you. The time has come, we should rule.'He asserted that the PMK would decide its electoral alliances closer to the 2026 Assembly polls. 'Elections are 10 months away. We will take the decision at the right time,' he said, amid speculation over PMK's stance after the BJP-AIADMK alliance took shape without them.'If we come to power,' he concluded, 'we will make Tamil Nadu like Singapore — and implement true social justice.'On alliances, with AIADMK already finalising its pact with the BJP, Anbumani remained non-committal, saying, 'Elections are ten months away. We will decide at the right time.' PMK has been allied with the National Democratic Alliance, led by the SIGNIFICANCE, MODERN OPTICSThis was the first time in 12 years that the Chithirai conference — historically significant for the Vanniyar community — was held, and it marked PMK's biggest outreach event, which gained importance amid renewed internal tensions and electoral and son — S Ramadoss and Anbumani — shared the stage at the conference despite their recent public spat over party leadership. Last month, the elder Ramadoss announced that he was resuming control of the PMK, effectively sidelining Anbumani, who was elected by the party's general the conference, Anbumani took centre stage, outlining an aggressive roadmap focused on social justice and internal reservation for Vanniyars. The 2013 edition had led to caste clashes and the arrest of senior PMK leaders, including founder S Watch
