Tamil Nadu minister K Ponmudy was on Friday removed as the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s deputy general secretary following an uproar over his vulgar comments about women, Shaivites and Vaishnavites at a public event.
DMK lawmaker K Kanimozhi was among those who condemned the remarks. “...Ponmudi’s recent speech is unacceptable. Regardless of the reason for it, such vulgar remarks are condemnable,” Kanimozhi said on X.
A DMK statement said chief minister MK Stalin has named Trichy Siva as the deputy general secretary without citing the reason for Ponmudy’s removal.
Ponmudy is one of the senior-most ministers in the DMK government. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Ponmudy and his son, Gautham Sigamnai, the member of Parliament from Kallakurichi, and their family members in 2023 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED attached assets worth over ₹14 crore in the case.
In March 2024, the Supreme Court suspended Ponmudy’s conviction and four-year jail sentence in a disproportionate assets case, allowing his reinduction into Stalin’s Cabinet. The Madras high court found him guilty in 2023, which led to his immediate disqualification as the lawmaker and forced him to step down as minister.
Amit Malviya, the in charge of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s national information and technology department, attacked the DMK over Ponmudy’s remarks and said he has taken the baton of Hindu-bashing forward after deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s attack on Sanatan Dharma last year. He added Ponmudy recounted a vulgar anecdote involving a prostitute and a man, where he mockingly reduced sacred Hindu symbols to crude sexual innuendos. “Referring to the Shaivite horizontal tilak as ‘lying down position’ and the Vaishnavite vertical tilak as ‘standing position,’ his remarks were not just offensive—they were deliberately insulting to the core beliefs of two major Hindu sects,” he said on X.
{{/usCountry}}Amit Malviya, the in charge of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s national information and technology department, attacked the DMK over Ponmudy’s remarks and said he has taken the baton of Hindu-bashing forward after deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s attack on Sanatan Dharma last year. He added Ponmudy recounted a vulgar anecdote involving a prostitute and a man, where he mockingly reduced sacred Hindu symbols to crude sexual innuendos. “Referring to the Shaivite horizontal tilak as ‘lying down position’ and the Vaishnavite vertical tilak as ‘standing position,’ his remarks were not just offensive—they were deliberately insulting to the core beliefs of two major Hindu sects,” he said on X.
{{/usCountry}}Malviya added that this is not Ponmudy’s first brush with controversy. “In 2022, he targeted Hindi speakers in Tamil Nadu, belittling them as panipuri sellers—another example of his divisive rhetoric.”
He said the pattern is clear and said Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, and Rashtriya Janata Dal seem united not by ideology, but by a shared disdain for Hindu beliefs and a relentless pursuit of minority appeasement. “Their politics thrives on insult, provocation, and calculated disrespect toward the majority community.”