A leader from a DMK-ally party has made headlines after a video went viral showing him making girls pledge to only marry within the community. The leader in question is KKC Balu, a treasurer of Kongu Nadu Makkal Desiya Katchi, an ally of the DMK who administered the oath to the girls in a function.
“It’s a promise! It’s a promise! A promise on Chinnamalai, we will marry a guy from a Gounder household,” the girls are heard saying in the presence of KKC Balu. It is also seen in the video that KKC Balu is seen felicitating girls after the performance of their traditional dance, the Valli Kummi dance which is from Western Tamil Nadu, predominantly performed by Gounders.
A dominant community in Tiruppur, Combatore, Erode, Salem and Namakkal, the Gounders community is locked in conflict with Dalits. Most visibly, the antagonism is over inter-caste marriage especially with the Dalits. Gounder leaders have multiple times expressed anguish at the increasing number of their women falling in love with and eloping with Dalit men.
A leader from AIADMK reacted to this and said, “Equality & social justice are only lip service as far as DMK is concerned. These words are used by them for vote bank politics & benefits.”
Meanwhile, there is action from Tamil Nadu as the ruling and its allies has urged President Droupadi Murmu to sack Governor RN Ravi, alleging that he has violated the oath he took under the Constitution and levelled a series of allegations against him after RN Ravi ‘praised Sanathan Dharma’ and ‘instigated communal violence’.
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