Pioneer News Service n

Chennai/Patna/New Delhi

A video clip of an alleged derogatory remark made months ago by DMK Lok Sabha MP Dayanidhi Maran, where he commented on workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar cleaning toilets and performing other menial jobs in Tamil Nadu, was widely circulated on social media on Sunday. This circulation led to a war of words between the BJP, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu (DMK), and the RJD.

The RJD is an alliance partner of the DMK in the large Opposition Bloc INDIA led by the Congress. In the State, the DMK and the Congress are in a coalition Government.

What is now being called yet another offensive remark by a DMK member comes after the Gau Mutra row involving the party’s Lok Sabha MP Senthilkumar, and before that, the controversial remarks on Sanatan Dharma made by the State’s Deputy CM Udaynidhi Stalin, which were also advocated by several other party leaders in the southern State, sparking a huge controversy at that time.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav condemned Maran’s alleged remark albeit in a defensive way. Yadav said like his RJD, the DMK headed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was a party that believed in social justice and it was unbecoming of a leader of such a party to have made such a remark.

“Had the DMK MP highlighted caste iniquities, had he pointed out that only people from some social groups took up such hazardous jobs, it would have made sense. But to speak disparagingly of the entire populace of Bihar and UP is reprehensible. We condemn it. We believe that people should be respectful towards those coming from other parts of the country”, asserted Yadav at Patna.

In the video clip, Maran purportedly said people in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who had learnt ‘only Hindi,’ construct houses, clean roads and toilets in Tamil Nadu, after learning Tamil. “This is the scenario if Hindi is learnt,” Maran is allegedly heard.

The video clip showing Maran’s alleged remark resurfaced on social media and the BJP said that the DMK MP’s comment is very objectionable and has derogatory references to Hindi speaking people. The reason for the matter cropping up now is not clear and it could not be ascertained immediately.

Citing the example of Sundar Pichai, a native of Tamil Nadu, Maran said he now heads Google and had he learnt Hindi, he would have been employed in the construction sector as a worker.  Since children from Tamil Nadu get educated and learn English well, they find employment in the Information Technology sector and earn good salaries.

Reacting to the latest comments surfaced, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that this has become a habit of the DMK ‘for sure’. Many leaders one after the other make such comments and earlier they attacked Sanatan Dharma too. Further, he said: “But the reason why Congress party and other parties of INDIA alliance are not saying anything is because, perhaps, they are all in it together.”

Tamil Nadu BJP Vice-president Naryananan Thirupathy said, though it was an old remark, it shows the ‘true colours’ of DMK leaders who use abusive, and derogatory language against north Indians.

DMK spokesperson J Constandine Ravindran however condemned BJP functionaries for deliberately spreading ‘falsehood’. “DMK is fully committed to an egalitarian society. No particular state like Tamil Nadu is superior. No other state like Uttar Pradesh or Bihar is inferior. The mala fide intent of the BJP people is evident as they are claiming something that Dayanidhi Maran never said or meant,” Ravindran said.

The substance of Dayanidhi Maran’s speech is all about opportunities available to a person, when she or he, in addition to mother tongue, also learnt the English language well, he clarified.