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.
