Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumvalavan, on Friday placed around seven demands to the Tamil Nadu State government including the demand that a Dalit and a woman must be appointed trustees in 43,283 temples administrated by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department in Tamil Nadu, ensure that people from all castes are allowed to offer prayers in temples without exceptions, and that the priest should face legal action and expulsion if ‘prasadam’ and ‘teertham’ are not provided to members of all castes.
He also demanded that temples under the HR&CE administration must be publicised as such and urged the department to submit a report to the Chief Minister over whether equality is followed in temples.
Speaking at the protest against the State government’s decision to lock and seal the Sri Dharmaraja Droupathi Amman temple in Melpathi in Villupuram, in which people belonging to Scheduled Caste community were not allowed to enter, Mr. Thirumavalavan said that the police were complicating social issues and spoke about an issue in a temple festival in Thirumohur in which a Dalit youth apparently questioned the activities of a non-Dalit youth under the influence of alcohol.
“After 12 in the midnight, around 60-70 youth entered the Dalit neighbourhood and attacked everyone. One was caught and handed over to the police. This person was let go by the police and has not been caught to this day. The cases were filed against those people who were attacked in their sleep. Is there anything more unjustifiable than this?” he asked, stating that it cannot be said that the Chief Minister is directly responsible for this.
Mr. Thirumavalavan alleged that a Hindu Munnani functionary and a BJP functionary were responsible for fanning the flames in Melpathi temple issue for electoral gains.
The Other Backward Castes (OBC) leaders do not oppose those who must be opposed but attack Dalit organisations who support their social justice demands.
“OBC leaders and PMK should oppose the BJP which went against the implementation of recommendations of the Mandal Commission. VCK, BSP and Ram Vilas Paswan supported the Mandal Commission recommendations. The BJP and RSS opposed it. L.K. Advani toppled V.P. Singh’s government for that. But, you are holding BJP’s hands. Who is your enemy? RSS or Dalit organisations,” he asked.
Further more, Mr. Thirumavalavan said, “When we say that our party flags should fly alongside other party flags, they (police) remove all party flags. We will read about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Marx and Periyar…but the police must follow and implement the law,” he said.
He said that he doesn’t bother much about issues related to temple entry of Dalits as there are much bigger issues faced by the community.
“It is important to politicise people rather than being bothered about temple entry. We have more things to do. But, we are unable to avoid it. This is a problem that exists across Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Members of VCK’s allies – Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, Dravidar Kazhagam, CPI (M), CPI, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, MDMK – and a few others participated.
