CHENNAI: It was a once-in-12-year chance to convince the Vanniyar community to stand by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in the upcoming Assembly elections. But the Sunday’s Vanniyar Sangam Chithirai Muzhu Nilavu Conference organised by the PMK near Mamallapuram saw the same battle between father Ramadoss, son Anbumani playing out on stage.
After Anbumani Ramadoss and founder S Ramadoss fought over who is the president of the party they shared stage at the conference, but confusion among the ranks of the party was palpable as the leaders, who spoke on the stage, refrained from addressing Anbumani or Ramadoss as the president of the party.
However, Anbumani, throughout his speech, praised his father Ramadoss and said that the senior leader has been fighting for the welfare of Vanniyars for the last 45 years. Further, he alleged that the governments have suppressed the sacrifices of Vanniyars in the freedom struggle as well as the social justice struggle. “The contributions of Ramadoss have been suppressed because he belongs to this (Vanniyar) caste. Other parties are using Vanniyars only for the vote bank,” he said.
Saying that the DMK government is refusing to conduct a caste survey and provide internal reservation to Vanniyars, Anbumani alleged that former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi refused to provide internal reservation despite the Janarthanam Committee recommendations. “But, he implemented 3 per cent internal reservation to Arunthathiyars and 3.5 per cent to Muslims based on the recommendations,” he added.
Hitting out at the present DMK government, Anbumani said that the government is betraying Vanniyar youths by refusing them education and jobs. “There are 109 top police officials in the State, but there is not even one Vanniyar officer among them. Moreover, Tamil Nadu has 326 IAS officers. Of them, only 14 belong to the Vanniyar caste. Of the 14 officers, 13 are conferred IAS officers. Only one vanniyar became an IAS officer in the State after Independence,” he said.
During his turn, Ramadoss issued stern warnings to the party leaders, without mentioning names, and said that PMK won 4 Assembly seats when it contested alone using the ‘elephant’ symbol during the nascent days, but presently, there are only 5 seats won by the party despite contesting in an alliance. “This is because of betrayal within the party. I will remove anyone from the party posts if they fail to work for the party. I don’t care if you are MLA or not,” he warned. Anbumani, who was sitting next to Ramadoss, was seen grinning when the latter said that there are alliances (factions) within the party and the days are counted for the erring leaders.
“I will change you or I will appoint someone to remove you. The party is because of my hard work. I did not have money to run the party then, now you are driving luxury cars,” he said.