Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan on Saturday said former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and former Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam should tender an open apology for acting in such a manner that the 10.5% reservation for Vanniyars landed in the Supreme Court.
Reacting to Mr. Palaniswami’s allegation that the Supreme Court quashed the 10.5% reservation for Vanniyars because the DMK government had failed to submit adequate data, Mr. Duraimurugan said it was highly condemnable since it was the AIADMK government headed by him that took a hurried and half-baked decision on the issue.
Mr. Duraimurugan said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin would consult legal experts and take a decision that would be appreciated by the Vanniyar community. Reiterating the DMK government’s commitment to the reservation for Vanniyar, he said even though the AIADMK government introduced the reservation for Vanniyar, the DMK government made all possible arguments in favour of the decision through senior counsels in the High Court and the Supreme court.
“Both Mr. Shanmugam, a former law minister, and Mr. Palaniswami are not aware of it. By denigrating the legal battle to secure the 10.5% reservation, both of them have betrayed the interests of the Vanniyars,” he added.
Mr. Duraimurugan said if Mr Shanmugam could read the lines “the government had committed error” after “he gained his consciousness,” he would realise that the government the court referred to was the AIADMK government.
He also alleged that the former law minister never showed any interest in providing reservation to the Vanniyar community in a proper manner, and added that even though the Backward Classes Commission made a strong case for caste-based data even in 2012, the AIADMK government never bothered to do it.
