CHENNAI: The ruling DMK would move a resolution seeking a nationwide caste census along with the population census during the ongoing Assembly session, said Chief Minister and party president MK Stalin on Monday.
He made the announcement in the Assembly while joining a heated exchange between the DMK and opposition PMK over the issue of providing 10.5 per cent reservation to the Vanniyar community. Stalin added that conducting caste census along with the general census was the only way that a favourable solution could be found for the complex issue.
Setting the tone for the intense debate, PMK legislature party leader GK Mani urged the State government to ensure the immediate provision of compartmental reservation to the Vanniyar community. He raised the matter while participating in the debate on the demand for grants for Higher Education and School Education departments.
Responding to the demand, Law Minister S Regupathy recalled how the Supreme Court and High Court orders struck down the Vanniyar reservation Act ‘hastily’ enacted by the previous AIADMK regime for want of data on the social and educational backwardness. Regupathy said the PMK, which is in alliance with the BJP that is in power at the Centre, could urge the Union government to undertake a caste census along with the population census that has not been done since 2021.
Backing his cabinet colleague, Chief Minister Stalin intervened and told Mani to talk to his party’s alliance partner and get the caste census done. “Only then 10.5 per cent reservation for Vanniyars can be implemented. The court has already struck down a similar survey done in Bihar.”
But an unrelenting Mani insisted that the State had the authority to provide compartmental reservation to Vanniyars as was done in the case of Muslims and Dalits in Tamil Nadu. Clarifying the issue, Regupathy reiterated the court order quashing the Bihar survey and said, “If we do it, it would also be struck down. What is the use in implementing it for the sake of it? It will be permanent only if we do it after the caste census.”
Highways Minister EV Velu mentioned the nationwide caste census promised by the INDIA bloc ahead of the Parliamentary polls and advised the PMK legislator to ask a “more powerful” Union government to get it done.
Intervening again in the debate Chief Minister Stalin said, “If we are to find a good solution to the issue, the Union government must soon undertake the caste census along with the population census. We have decided to move a resolution in the current session of the State Assembly in this regard. Mani must extend his support to it.”
Packing a punch in the debate, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar said that Mani was trying to project DMK as an anti-Vanniyar party though it was the earlier regime headed by party patriarch M Karunanidhi that provided the 20 per cent reservation enjoyed by the community.
In a veiled reference to the AIADMK, during the regime of which the pro-reservation Vanniyar protesters were killed in police firing, Sivasankar said the PMK was aware that the 10.5 per cent reservation for Vanniyars was hastily announced by the then AIADMK government hours before the election notification. However, the government order on this was issued only after Stalin took over as the Chief Minister, he noted.
“You belittled the DMK. You even ditched the party (AIADMK) which announced 10.5 per cent reservation. Then you allied with a party opposed to social justice,” remarked Sivasankar referring to BJP, leaving Mani visibly fuming.
For his part, Speaker M Appavu said that the people from the community were grateful to the DMK for the 20 per cent reservation provided to them. As an unrelenting Mani accused the treasury benches, mainly a minister, of trying to politicise the issue, Sivasankar said that it was the PMK which was trying to politicise the issue despite data showing that the Vanniyar community was benefitting more than 10.5 per cent owing to the 20 per cent reservation. The compartmental reservation demanded by the PMK would only reduce the community’s quota to 10.5 per cent, he said.
An agitated Mani eventually walked out of the House in protest after the Speaker disallowed him to raise the issue further citing want of time.