By The Hindu Bureau

Copyright thehindu

PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday announced that the party would launch a ‘fill the jails’ protest on December 17, demanding 15% reservation for Vanniyars in education and jobs within the Most Backward Classes category.

In a statement, Dr. Anbumani said the DMK had failed to provide the reservation despite 1,267 days having passed since the Supreme Court struck down the 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyars.

“PMK leaders, including myself, will participate in the ‘fill the jails’ protest in all districts at 11 a.m. on December 17. At least 5,00,000 people should participate and get arrested on that day. All PMK office-bearers should take part,” he said.

Dr. Anbumani said his party could have ensured that the DMK implemented the reservation long ago through protests, but did not take that route in the hope that the DMK would ensure the quota.

“We cannot wait any longer. That is why we have announced this protest. The PMK will not rest without ensuring the implementation of this reservation. The DMK government had been promising the Vanniyar community that it would implement reservation ever since the SC judgement was delivered. But now, the DMK states that they are unable to do it because they don’t have caste census data. The Supreme Court didn’t say that caste-census needs to be done, but even if that’s the case, it is the responsibility of Backward Classes commission,” he said, adding that the Karnataka government had gathered data related to the Scheduled Caste community in 63 days and presented a report within 165 days.

Dr. Anbumani said that the DMK has many times expressed its unwillingness to not provide reservations to the Vanniyar Community. “In February 2021, when the bill ensuring 10.5% reservations for Vanniyars was passed in the State Assembly, DMK boycotted it and in its election campaign, it went against the Vanniyar reservation to consolidate the non-Vanniyar voters. It is continuing its opposition towards Vanniyars for the last three and a half years as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, PMK founder S. Ramadoss’s official spokesperson, P. Swaminaathun, met Election Commission (EC) officials in Delhi to argue his case in the dispute over who gets to be the party president.

Mr. Swaminaathun submitted a letter from Dr. Ramadoss urging the EC to ‘remodify’ the communication it had sent to Dr. Anbumani acknowledging the extension of his tenure as per the general body meeting held on August 9, and issue a fresh communication based on the special general body meeting held on August 17, which recognised Dr. Ramadoss as the party president for three years.