Netizens demand 'hate monger' DMK alliance candidate be dropped

Chennai: Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), an ally of the ruling DMK, is under pressure to replace its lone candidate from Namakkal, S Suriyamurthy, for his controversial speeches made in the past that not merely justified honour killings but threatened to perpetrate violence against Dalits if they tried to marry girls from dominant Gounder caste. 

Suriyamurthy, the youth wing secretary of the KMDK a party that claims to espouse the cause of entrepreneurial Gounders spread across western Tamil Nadu, is contesting in the DMK’s Rising Sun symbol. Video clips of Suriyamurthy making “hate speeches” against the Dalit community have gone viral, raising questions on the radio silence of the DMK, which is also the leader of the Secular Progressive Alliance, on KMDK’s choice. 

Social media users are demanding that the DMK, which harps on social justice and equality in society, to exert pressure on the KMDK to replace Suriyamurthy as the candidate will contest in its symbol. However, the sub-regional outfit is trying to put up a brave face, saying Suriyamurthy was cleared of the charges by a local court and that the video clips that have gone viral are “fake.” 

“Suriyamurthy is a young and energetic man and he has done service to the society. He doesn’t discriminate against people from any caste,” KMDK general secretary E R Eswaran said on Wednesday. Namakkal, from where Suriyamurthy is fielded, consists of two constituencies reserved for Dalits. 

Activists have been demanding a strict against honour killing in Tamil Nadu as incidents of parents killing their own children for falling in love with people from other castes, especially those from Scheduled Caste (SC). 

In one of the videos, Suriyamurthy tells a group of youngsters belonging to the Gounder community that the KMDK has assembled around 1,500 youth, who will monitor whether any youth from Dalit or other communities are trying to lure women from Gounder community. 

“If you believe that marrying a Gounder girl will make you rich, we will make sure you are eliminated along with your mother while still in the womb…If anyone from other castes make an attempt to touch Gounder women, we will warn them. If they do not heed to it, we will kill both of them,” Suriyamurthy says in one of the videos. 

Surprisingly, the AIADMK, the principal Opposition party, and BJP haven’t reacted on Suriyamurthy’s candidature as Gounders are the predominant vote bank for both parties in the western region. Both AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and state BJP chief K Annamalai hail from the same community. 

Jayaram Venkatesan, who runs the NGO Arappor Iyakkam, accused the DMK of being ready to “mortgage its core ideology of social justice” for votes. 

“The hate speech by Suriyamurthy is a clear threat to Dalits. He is not merely justified honour killings but threatening to kill anyone from other castes who marries a Gounder woman. He is a clear threat to communal harmony and the DMK should have by now asked KMDK to replace the candidate,” Venkatesan added. 

The activist, whose NGO has exposed several scams in Tamil Nadu, said opposition parties not raising their voice against Suriyamurthy is a reminder how casteism is rampant and well entrenched in established political parties.