Under the guise of upholding the Dravidian movement, DMK Rajya Sabha MP and party’s organizing secretary, RS Bharathi stirred fresh controversy after airing demeaning and derogatory statements against journalists, people of North India and the Dalits.
Being one of the party’s senior leaders, he has been caught up with strong criticism among the media after his address went viral on Monday. Addressing in an event of Kalaignar Readers’ circle that was organized at Anbagam, the DMK Youth Wing headquarters in Chennai on Saturday, Bharathi started off by attacking senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader H Raja, calling him a loafer and then a “Brahmin dog”.
According to a report by Swarajya, the DMK leader said: “Had I not held a position in the party, I would have become a terrorist to take on these people (those criticising the Dravidian movement),” Bharathi said, furthering that the present-day youth are not aware that Tamil Nadu was among the top states due the contribution of the Dravidian movement.
“People in other states are fools. Particularly, North India they are all fools,” said the DMK MP.
The senior DMK leader went to the extent of comparing the media channels with ‘Red Light Area’ in Mumbai. The party leader said: “They have a debate on this. These television guys are scoundrels. No one is as corrupt as them. They are running the channels like the red light area in Mumbai. Just because they are getting money, they raise anything (issue).”
“The press guys don’t have any job. They don’t write anything when others do something. When (Arvind) Kerjiwal hired Prashant Kishor, they didn’t write about it. Narendra Modi used it, they didn’t write. Many others used him, no one wrote. But when he (Kishor) came to DMK in Tamil Nadu, they are talking out of jealousy,” the senior DMK leader said.
In his speech that lasted for about 12 minutes, he stated that the appointment of Dalits as High court judges was possible because of the dole given by the Dravidian movement. “Not a single Harijan has become a judge in Madhya Pradesh till this day. It was Kalaignar (the late Karunanidhi) who first made an Adi Dravida (a Scheduled Caste in Tamil Nadu), Varadharajan, a judge after he came to power”.
“After that, if seven or eight from the community have become judges, it is because of the alms (pitchai) doled out by the DMK,” said the DMK MP.
He then went on to make more disparaging remarks on the Supreme Court. “Ava (Brahmins) have come back. I say with heartburn that the Supreme Court has become an RSS camp. I am an advocate, but this is my grievance,” the DMK MP.
He went on to claim that the party is neither against Hinduism nor Hindus and he stated that the priests at the temples won’t be getting money if the members of DMK don’t go to temples.
Stating that a revolution would have taken place had Karunanidhi been alive, Bharathi said: “Periyar (EV Ramasamy), Anna (CN Annadurai) and Kalaignar are needed again today.”
The senior DMK leader, however, after receiving severe backlash on social media and by various journalists for his derogatory statements against the media, took to Twitter and regretted his statements against the Dalits and marginalized communities. In his tweet, he stated that he understood that his speech has hurt the sentiments of the backward communities and claimed that his motive was to highlight the good things Karunanidhi has done for them.
Addressing the reporters, he stated that he had no personal intention to hurt the media and placed his regret by pointing that the party’s president had asked him to meet the reporters and to place the regret about his comments.
