On July 25, KN Nehru, the Municipal Administration Minister in Tamil Nadu made a derogatory and racist statement against the people of Bihar. As per a report in Outlook, while attacking Lalu Prasad Yadav for his tenure as railway minister, he said, “Lalu Prasad Yadav as Railway Minister had packed the Railways with Biharis, especially at lower-level jobs, even though Biharis were less brainy than Tamils.” The Minister was speaking at an employment camp at the DMK office in Tiruchy.
He further added, “Over 4,000 people from Bihar are currently working at the Golden Rock Workshop of Southern Railway located in Tituchy. The majority of the gatekeepers at railways crossings are Biharis. This is all due to the handiwork of Lalu Prasad Yadav. When he was railway minister, he had all his fellow Biharis pass the railways exams by copying and then got them appointed in railway jobs. These people know neither Tamil nor Hindi and lack the brains that we Tamils have. Yet they are working in Tamil Nadu.”
He blamed Tamils as well for not showing any inclination or take the initiative to apply for the jobs in the Central Government or its undertakings. He said, “Even though ten per cent of jobs in Railways and PSU banks are reserved for candidates from outside the respective states, very few of our students took advantage of this. Compared to the southern states, the youth of Tamil Nadu are on par with those from Kerala in terms of intelligence. Therefore, people from Tamil Nadu should try harder for central government jobs,” Nehru said, as per reports.
Recalling former Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s request to become MP and move to Delhi, he said that he declined the offer as he did not know English or Hindi. “I regret that now,” the Minister said. His remarks have caused a stir in the political arena. Interestingly, Prashant Kishore, DMK’s strategist for the last Assembly elections, is also from Bihar.
In the centre, DMK, as an opposition party, has accused the BJP government of appointing people from North India in the railway and bank jobs. However, all the appointments were made after the candidates passed the written exams and joined their respective posts via a 10% non-state quota. The same DMK is now blaming former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for preferring Biharis and Tamils for not applying for government jobs in the state.
Other bizarre statements by Nehru
This is not the first time DMK Minister KN Nehru has given a bizarre statement. During a political rally in March 2021, he justified allowing Tamil Nadu students to cheat in NEET exams claiming students from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh also cheat. He had added that if his party come back to power, he would extend the ‘privilege’ to the medical students of Tamil Nadu.
