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Tamil Nadu CM Stalin announces memorial for Vanniyar agitation victims
The agitation paralysed the entire state for at least a week, when Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK), later AIADMK, founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) was the chief minister.
Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Thursday announced that a ₹4-crore memorial for 21 people who died in police firing during the Vanniyar quota agitation in 1987 would be constructed in Villupuram district, marking the state’s stance on social justice.
“I made this commitment to honour the sacrifice of those who struggled for social justice during the by-elections for Vikravandi (assembly constituency in Villupuram in 2019),” said Stalin, adding that his family, too, belongs to a socially backward community.
The agitation paralysed the entire state for at least a week, when Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK), later AIADMK, founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) was the chief minister. The agitations were quelled when the DMK came back to power in 1989, and M Karunanidhi created 20% reservation for MBCs, and Vanniyars were among the 108 caste groups in the list. But the community said that their representation and access to opportunities were still abysmal.
Recently, the DMK government passed a government order to implement the 10.5% reservation for the Vanniyar community, introduced by the previous AIADMK regime earlier this February, to appease its ally the PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi), a Vanniyar caste-based party, whose founder S Ramadoss was in the forefront of the agitation in the 1980s.
The announcement for the memorial comes ahead of the local body polls in the state. The DMK’s principal ally, the Congress’ floor leader K Selvaperunthagai went a step ahead by asking the PMK to reconsider its alliance status-quo. Since the 1990s, PMK has oscillated between the DMK and AIADMK in assembly and parliamentary elections. In 2016, for the first time, PMK went alone, projecting former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss as its chief ministerial candidate, but were unsuccessful.
Selvaperunthagai recalled that PMK founder Ramadoss had organised a social justice conference in 1989 thanking Karunanidhi for providing the 20% reservation to MBCs. The Congress leader then said that in 2019, when PMK joined the AIADMK-led NDA alliance for the parliamentary elections, he had asked them how they can align with a party that shot down the 21 people “like pigeons”. He added, “Now, the DMK government, which has been protecting your community is ruling the state. I appeal to the PMK founder to ponder over who had stood by you and your people all through.”
However, the PMK leaders present in the House did not respond but released a statement welcoming the announcement.
In the late 1970s, Ramadoss forged a coalition of Vanniyar community groups, which later came under the umbrella of the Vanniyar Sangam (Federation of Vanniyars). It continues to be the parent body of the PMK. In the 1980s, the Sangam was carrying out protests demanding MBC status for Vanniyars. MGR, at that time, was hospitalised in the US and held discussions with the group on his return, but he soon passed away in 1987.
Last year, ahead of the assembly elections, the PMK revived this decades-old demand and threatened to walk out of the alliance with AIADMK if their reservation demands weren’t met. In December 2020, the PMK cadre, who were on a state-wide protest for the reservation, pelted stones on a train, brought traffic to a standstill as the Chennai police sealed its borders to restrict them from entering the city. Subsequently, then chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami ordered a statewide caste-based data, and before the model code of conduct came into effect, passed the 10.5% reservation bill for Vanniyars in jobs and education.
Political experts do not see Stalin as extending an olive branch to the PMK but rather to wipe them out completely by catering to the larger Vanniyar community. “By staying with the 10.5% reservation and announcing the memorial, Stalin is taking a pro-Vanniyar stance to neutralise Ramadoss’s position,” said political commentator Raveendran Duraisamy.
Karunanidhi had built up a solid Vanniyar presence within the DMK to counter Ramadoss’ rise. “But Stalin is playing it differently,” he said, adding that he is doing what late J Jayalalithaa did by giving importance to leaders and people of the Vanniyar community but she took an anti-PMK stand. “Stalin is in a profitable alliance so he doesn’t need to appease the PMK when he can win over the community at large. He also wants to dilute the AIADMK-PMK combination,” said Duraisamy. At least seven districts in Tamil Nadu have a dominant Vanniyar presence.
