Hours after throwing a Gaumutra jibe at the Hindi heartland states in Lok Sabha, DMK MP Senthil Kumar made a half-hearted apology for his comments on Tuesday (5th December). He said in a post from his X handle that he did not use the term with ‘any intent’.
DMK MP posted a half-hearted apology from his X handle
Senthil Kumar posted, “Commenting on the results of the five recent state assembly elections, I have used a word in an inappropriate way. Not using that term with any intent, I apologize for sending the wrong meaning across.”
Commenting on the results of the five recent state assembly elections, I have used a word in a inappropriate way.
— Dr.Senthilkumar.S (@DrSenthil_MDRD) December 5, 2023
Not using that term with any intent,
I apologize for sending the wrong meaning across.
However, minutes after posting this lame apology, Senthil Kumar was seen on a TV News channel Times Now, where he was brazenly supporting his statement. When asked about what he meant by Gaumutra states, Senthil Kumar said, “See you look at the statement as such and then you come into things. I said they are very good at election manoeuvring. They are very good at where their strength is. They are good in the Hindi heartland. They are good in the Gaumutra states. But they cannot enter into four southern states because our principles and ideologies are different. So it is just basically meant to make an ideological statement about what they are good at and where we are. It is always said that unity in diversity is what we look at.”
Notably, Senthil Kumar has a history of taking Gaumutra jibe in the parliament house. He cited that there was no outrage on the last occasion when he did so. He used this argument to support his current insensitive remarks. He said, “See this statement was made already on the floor of the house before. And nobody else had objected. Today, when I made the statement in the house, there was a chairperson in the chair. There were the home minister – who introduced the bill – and other BJP members. There were alliance partners. Since they did not ask me and they did not find anything to be taken out of the records I don’t think I will have to stress anything more on it. I would also like to state that this statement was already made in the house during another session in the old parliament house. That did not create any controversy.”
DMK MP DNV Senthilkumar's 'Gaumutra states' remark, made during his speech in Lok Sabha, has been expunged.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 5, 2023
"I will try to avoid using it next time," clarifies DMK MP DNV Senthilkumar.
This statement was used earlier during another session in the old parliament, and no one… pic.twitter.com/gIBPuS8ZwL
DMK is a part of the I.N.D.I. alliance. It has several alliance partners in the Hindi heartland states. When asked if this Gaumutra jibe will affect the elections, the DMK MP Senthil Kumar said, “There are not only these three states, There are other states also. It is just a synonym we classify according to. It is just that and nothing more. It is not that just BJP is saying that cow is a sacred animal. Everybody says that the cow is a sacred animal. So many people worship cows including people in Tamil Nadu.”
Further advancing in support of his statement, Senthil Kumar tried to give it an ideological cover by saying that the Gaumutra term (meaning cow’s urine) used by him has nothing to do with cows. He said, “I am not saying anything related to cows. It is only the principles and the ideology which you say. Gaumutra doesn’t translate into a cow. It doesn’t just translate into a sacred animal thing which people are saying. There is much more to it. There is a much more scientific and radical thing to it. It is not just what people want to interpret certainly. It is not the BJP that has made a thing out of it. Because there are other people in the house. It has got nothing to do with the alliance partners and the election results in the Hindi states. Elections are fought on certain principles and ideologies.”
What did Senthil Kumar say in the parliament?
On the second day of the Winter Session of Lok Sabha (5th December), Senthil Kumar, the DMK MP from Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu made the pejorative ‘gaumutra’ remark to mock the Hindi-speaking states in the Northern part of India. While addressing the Parliament on ‘The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023’, the DMK leader referred to states in the Hindi heartland as “Gaumutra states”.
Addressing the Lok Sabha members, he said, “The people of this country should think that the power of this BJP is only winning elections mainly in the heartland states of Hindi, what we generally call as the ‘Gaumutra states’.”
Further in his 7-minute speech, he tried to make false equivalence with the Unionhood of Jammu and Kashmir. The DMK MP alleged that the BJP could reduce South Indian states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka into Union territory to have ‘indirect rule’ over these states.
Senthil Kumar had earlier made similar remarks in the parliament using Gaumutra as a pejorative
Meanwhile, it is not the first time that the DMK leader has made the Hinduphobic ‘Gaumutra’ comment inside the Parliament. In February 2022, he mocked the BJP government by making the Hinduphobic ‘gaumutra’ comment in the parliament. In his speech on the Motion of Thanks to the President, Senthilkumar said that if government at all wants to implement the National Education Policy, it should do it in their ‘Gaumutra’ states.
Furious over the execution of the National Education Policy in the state of Tamil Nadu, he had said, “According to NEP, gross enrollment ratio has to be 50% which Tamil Nadu has achieved long ago. If they want to implement this policy, they should implement the Dravidian model for the development of the country. Why is their policy being thrust upon us? We reject it. If they want to implement it, they should do it in their Gaumutra States.”
It is notable here that several leaders from Congress, DMK’s alliance partner, have condemned Senthil Kumar’s hateful comment.
