Despite its being part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, the Pattali Makkal Katchi on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to traditional demands.
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss said the party’s manifesto would call for social justice, autonomy for Tamil Nadu and a strong India. It would work for removal of the creamy layer from the OBC reservation, conduct of a socio-economic caste census, implementation of reservation in the private sector and the judiciary, Tamil Nadu without mines, removal of entrance exams and and a 50% share for the States in the Central taxes.
PMK founder S. Ramadoss reiterated that the decision to ally with the BJP was taken with a view to creating an alternative to the two Dravidian parties that had destroyed and plundered Tamil Nadu for the last 57 years. He said they were only “doing business and not governing”.
Justifying alliance with BJP despite the fact that BJP has already opposed many of PMK’s promises, Dr. Anbumani said that there was no issue in two parties who are opposed to each other being together and sought to highlight how the opposition INDIA bloc is full of parties that do not agree with each other on many issues.
“We will urge the Central government to conduct a caste census. Since Economically Weaker Sections have been given 10%, we will take steps to remove upper limit of 50% in reservations along with creamy layer in OBC reservations,” said Dr. Anbumani.
Answering questions about what happened to 10-point demands that the party placed in 2019 to join NDA headed by AIADMK, Dr. Anbumani said, “We had placed 10 demands and out of which around 5 demands were satisfied. Declaration of Delta region as protected agricultural zone, laws against illegal sand mining, release of 7 Tamil convict and so on. AIADMK had satisfied a few of our demands.” He also accused DMK of taking a wrong strategy calling for 50% reservations for OBC while PMK filed a case demanding 27% reservations for OBCs.
Dr. Ramadoss also responded to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s statement that PMK chose not to ally with AIADMK despite passing a law to ensure 10.5% reservations for Vanniyars in 2021. “It is only after we said that we don’t care about alliance or seats, the AIADMK passed the law on the last day. They were bent on not passing it. It is only because I was firm, the law was passed by AIADMK in a hurry. Why didn’t DMK do anything in the last 2 years (after the law was struck down by Supreme Court),”he asked.
