The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has filed a complaint under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) who had criticized Ambedkar.
Vasumitra alias Vadivel Murugan, a member of the CPI, is alleged to have written a facebook post dishonouring Dr. Ambedkar. In light of this the Untouchability wing of CPI (M) has filed a case against Vasumitra under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
The issue was subject to much discussion among the so-called rationalist crowd. People like A. Marx have come out and expressed that the facebook post is condemnable but charging of Vasumitra under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act is a little too much. Kottravai, Sums Valarmathi and Tirupur Guna have expressed their anguish against CPM for slapping SC/ST Act against Vasumitra. A lot of them want the issue to be resolved through talks.
However, the CPM has come out harsh against those in support of Vasumitra saying that Vasumitra is a caste fanatic and others like A.Marx and Kottravai also need to be slapped with SC/Act.
On the other hand, people like Pa. Ranjith, Shobasakthi, Madhivannan, Neelakandan have supported the CPM’s stance. Other Dalit parties have also come out in support for CPM and wants cases filed under the Act against Vasumitra.
It is to be noted that the CPM had come out in support of Perumal Murugan who in his novel One Part Woman had portrayed the religious practices of Kongu Vellalar community and their women in a distasteful manner. The Kongu Vellalars who protested against the novel were called as ‘caste-Hindus’ trying to stifle freedom of speech and expression.
However, they seem to have taken a contradicting position by suppressing Vadivel Murugan and those in support of him.
“By using the SC/ST Act against me, it is understood that there exists a mindset to portray him as a caste leader.”, said Vadivel Murugan in his facebook post. However, Vasumitra said that he will not get intimidated by such threats. He justified in his post that he criticized Ambedkar having reviewed him and his work of “Buddha and his Dhamma”.
In 2019, had published a book titled “Ambedkar and His Dhamma”. K. Santhanam, the state executive member of the party in Tamil Nadu had released it. Ranganayakamma had released a book in Telugu titled that roughly translates to “Solution to caste problem: Buddha is not enough, Ambedkar is not enough, Marx is essential”. This book was translated into Tamil by Kottravai alias Nirmala, the wife of Vadivel Murugan. This book criticizes Ambedkar and his ideas about annihilating caste.