PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss charged that Chief Minister MK Stalin was being influenced by a group of ministers and the DMK was moving away from its original principles. He also expressed concern over the law and order situation in the state while talking to reporters at The Hindu Office. Edited excerpts:
As of 2019, you are largely with NDA. You were either with AIADMK or BJP. You have been sharply critical of the DMK and its alliance despite sharing several ideological positions. Why?
DMK has forgotten its ideology and strayed a lot from its principles. In 1967, it came to power on a wave of anti-Hindi agitations and seized the student movement. However, Tamil Nadu is the only state in India where you can get a degree without learning your mother tongue. In Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana you cannot get a degree (without knowing your mother tongue). When DMK was a minority government in 2006, we urged them to make Tamil a compulsory language. They went through Bill. The case against him is still pending in the Supreme Court. Whenever corruption charges are leveled against them or the Enforcement Directorate hounds them, the DMK immediately hires top lawyers and goes to the Supreme Court. Why can’t they do this for this tamil issue?
What is the significance of caste census/survey and why is DMK hesitating to launch it?
We don’t call it “caste census” anymore. We will call it a census for “social justice” because many feel uneasy when we use the word caste. The caste census conducted by the Center is only a count; you can’t bring any programs with just the number of employees. The social backwardness of communities can only be ascertained by the state government. For example, Telangana’s caste survey presented 75 questions. And in Bihar, they found that 94 thousand families have an income of less than ₹ 6000 per month and subsequently introduced social security schemes. If I were the Chief Minister, within the first three months I would find out how my people are doing and understand their micro level social, educational and economic status in Tamil Nadu. This data will accelerate the development of Tamil Nadu.
Have you discussed caste census with your alliance party leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami? Is he on board with the idea?
Absolutely. As parties, we have our own ideologies. We have difference of opinion with BJP on NEET and so on. (However, we will persist on this subject. We spoke to him (Mr. Palaniswami) and told him that a good administrator should take care of these matters.
Did you talk to Prime Minister MK Stalin about this?
I have personally met the Chief Minister four to five times. He said we could do it, but in the end the group of four ministers around him wouldn’t allow it. Today you have data on how many birds migrate to Vedanthangal every year from Serbia, Russia and China. You have data on the number of stray dogs. But you don’t have the data about the social problems faced by the people of Tamil Nadu.
Ten years ago you were a bitter critic of the then Chief Minister Mr. Palaniswami. Today you support him to become the next Chief Minister. What is your assessment of Mr. Palaniswami?
Our single point agenda is to dethrone DMK. And for this, all like-minded parties, albeit with different ideologies, joined together. Mr Palaniswami is a farmer and my party is 90% rural. They are farmers and workers – not farm owners, but workers. We have taken up issues during his tenure – among them the demand to declare the Cauvery delta as Padhukagappatta Velan Mandalam (protected agricultural zone), a word I coined in 2015-16. I met Mr. Palaniswami 10 times for that alone. The communists took it after me. Subsequently (Mr. Palaniswami) passed the Act (Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Act, 2020). When Mr. Palaniswami was the Chief Minister, he gave 10.5% internal reservation to the Vanniyar community, for which we fought for a very long time.
PMK was at the peak of power before 2011. You were part of the Union government and the party also had many MLAs. However, the party has faced problems in the last decade and a half. How do you rate his journey during this period?
We have made mistakes in the past, one of which was in 2013. After the conference we had in Mahabalipuram, there were many problems (Violence in Marakkanam)… When we say PMK is for social justice, it includes all communities – SC, ST, OBC, MBC. What did Mr. Stalin do for SC in the last five years? We gave Dalit Ezhilmalai the post of Union Minister in 1998.
