Leaders of the Tamil Nadu unit of BJP met Chennai City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan on Monday asking to file an FIR against DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran for his comments allegedly alluding to Scheduled Castes last week.
K.S. Narendran, State general secretary of the party, in his complaint to the Commissioner referred to Mr. Maran’s statement to the media after meeting Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam. Alleging that the Chief Secretary had humiliated the DMK MPs, Mr. Maran asked “Are we third rate citizens? Oppressed,” using the Tamil term thazthapatavaragala to denote the “oppressed,” which was politically used to refer to the Scheduled Castes in the State.
Mr. Narendran said the police should register a case against Mr. Maran for insulting the community, which is an offence punishable under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
