Tamil Nadu: Not enough Dalit MLAs given Cabinet berth

Chennai: Even as two dominant castes Gounders and Mukkulathors legislators are squabbling to establish their domination in the AIADMK and the government following the sudden demise of Jayalalithaa, Dalits MLAs who constitute the single largest group in the AIADMK legislature party are continued to be sidelined with token representation in the Cabinet.

Of 135 AIADMK MLAs, 31 members were from the Dalit community followed by Gounders with 28 members and Mukkulathors constituting 20 legislators. The OPS cabinet has nine members from the Mukkulathor community including him while Gounders and Vanniayar have five ministers each. Dalits were given a mere three cabinet berths.

“Dalits have always voted in large numbers for the AIADMK since its inspection. Their loyalty is unquestionable and they remained with the party in the ups and downs,” said a Dalit AIADMK MLA.

Three Dalit MLAs were included in the cabinet while P. Dhanapal was nominated as the Assembly Speaker. A Dalit legislator, on condition of anonymity, said that one disgruntlement among the legislators belonging to Paraiyar community, a prominent Dalit community in Northern Tamil Nadu, was that they were not represented in the Cabinet, while Pallars and Arundhathiyars were included.

Pallars are predominant in the southern districts while Arundhathiyars are spread more widely across, with a fair bit of concentration in south and west.

“We are hopeful that Paraiyar community will be represented in the Cabinet in the future. We had already taken up the issue when Amma was alive,” the legislator said. However, he denied any infighting in the party on caste lines.  
VCK general secretary D. Ravikumar’s facebook post, in run up to the assembly polls early this year, asking why a Dalit has not been able to become a Chief Minister (in a State) where the Dalit population is close to 21 per cent, while Bihar (with a Dalit population of 16 per cent) has already had a (Mahadalit) Dalit CM? His post triggered a storm in the People’s Welfare Alliance comprising of VCK, MDMK and Left parties for naming their ally Vijayakanth, DMDK chief as its CM candidate.

Leaver alone chief minister post, the AIADMK government did not give adequate representation to Dalits in its Cabinet, he told Deccan Chronicle.

“Irrespective of their numerical strength, Dalits were continued to be ignored by both the DMK and the AIADMK. If not for the reserved seats in the state assembly, the Dalits might have gone unrepresented in the elected bodies. How many Dalits were nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Dravidian parties from Tamil Nadu?” he said, pointing out that Dr B. R. Ambedkar had sought for reservation in Cabinet as well and had given a memorandum to the British government in this regard.

“In the 50 years of Dravidian parties rule, Dalits were neither given any important portfolios in their ministries nor proportionate representations in the Cabinet,” he noted. In the last DMK government between 2006-11, the party had 17 dalit
MLAs but had given ministerial berths to two.