R S Bharati, Rajya Sabha member and senior DMK leader was arrested early Saturday morning by Chennai Police under charges of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)Act 1989. The arrest was in connection with a complaint filed by Arun Kumar, a Dalit leader, who had said that Bharati had insulted and humiliated the marginalised communities while addressing a public meeting held in Chennai on February 15.
Bharati was granted interim bail by a court in Egmore till June 1. Arun Kumar had alleged that the DMK leader made derogatory comments about the Dalits in the State during his speech when he stated that the depressed classes were elevated by the DMK as an act of charity.
The reported comment had resulted in a lot of controversy among Dalit outfits in the State. Bharati, the organising secretary of the DMK had caused major embarrassment to the ruling AIADMK by filing a series of cases in the Madras High Court accusing Ministers and party leaders of corruption and scam. Speaking to reporters after he was released on interim bail, Bharati alleged that the arrest was a political conspiracy against him by the AIADMK Government. “We won’t succumb to these conspiracies. We will continue to raise our voice against this corrupt Government,” Bharati told reporters.
Friday saw VP Doraisamy, a senior DMK leader and former deputy speaker (2006-2011) quitting the party and joining the BJP.
Doraisamy, who was deputy general secretary of the party was removed from that position on Thursday by party supremo MK Stalin for bringing disrepute to the party. Speaking to reporters at Kamalalayam, the Tamil Nadu BJP headquarters, Doraisamy said that the DMK had of late deviated from its responsibilities and has become an anti-Dalit outfit which forced him to quit the party.
Adding to the woes of the DMK leadership was a statement by another senior leader Dayanidhi Maran, who on May 13 hurt the sentiments of the Dalits ion the State. After a meeting with K Shanmugham, the chief secretary of the State, Maran, a member of Lok Sabha, alleged that the former humiliated a delegation of DMK led by him when they went to meet him. “The chief secretary treated us as if we were Dalits,” said Maran while speaking to reporters after his meeting with the State’s top bureaucrat. It is reported that one of the Dalit activists had filed a case against the DMK MP for the reported statement.
