Tamil Nadu ‘Dalit Party’ spearheads demand for de-listing 6 castes from SC list
The Puthiya Tamilagam (PT), a ‘Dalit party’ in Tamil Nadu, has been spearheading the demand to delist six communities from the list of Scheduled Castes, saying their removal is necessary for upward mobility.
The PT’s founder president, Dr K Krishnasamy, also quit the ruling AIADMK-led alliance charging the Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) government of dragging its feet on the commitment to club the six communities.
“Remaining in the SC list is a stain. It is akin to being in the River Cooum (a once-pristine river which has turned into the drainage of Chennai),” Dr Krishnasamy said.
Only after the British included them in the SC list, these communities have been subjected to caste oppression and discrimination.
We were agriculturists and inhabitants of the wetlands – ‘Marutha Nilam’, one of the five landscapes of the Tamil country in the Sangam era,” he added.