News Tamil Nadu

Dravidian Model Social Justice: DMK Ally KMDK’s Suriamoorthi Given MP Seat Under ‘Rising Sun’ Symbol, Had Called Dalits “Beggars” And Threatened To Kill Those Doing Inter-Caste Marriages

March 19, 2024
The Commune

The Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) announced S. Suriamoorthi as its candidate for the Namakkal Parliamentary Constituency on 18 March 2024, nominated by the DMK as part of the I.N.D.I. Alliance. Suriamoorthi will contest under the DMK’s ‘rising sun’ symbol. A 51-year-old native of Sivagiri in Kodumudi block, he currently resides in Namakkal. Engaged in farming and construction activities, he previously contested unsuccessfully in Assembly elections in Modakkurichi in 2001, in Vellakoil in 2006, and as the party candidate in Modakkurichi in 2016. Suriamoorthi joined KMDK in 2007 and has served as its youth wing secretary for the past seven years. 

As soon as this announcement was made, an undated video of his speech made the rounds on social media platform X. In this undated video, he is seen giving out a warning to people from the “lower caste” not to woo his community women otherwise “he and his boys will unleash a reign of terror”.

Here is the translation of the entire speech: The video begins when he says, “They say I speak too brashly. We are a community that donate (food) to tens of homes, You are a begging dog in those ten houses, if you speak that much, I donate to ten houses, I have enough wealth for 10 generations, so you can measure to what extent I can speak. If you train your eyes on the Gounder community women or the Gounder Community, if a low caste wants to become a high caste, they must work hard and earn. But if you lead your youth by wrongly propagating that if they marry a Goundachi (Gounder woman) they can become a high caste, if you do that, we will commit genocide when he is in his mother’s womb.”

He added, “Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam’s youth wing is working towards a goal. I am telling the intelligence wing here, don’t think that Gounders will not get into a fight or go to jail, we are at a stage where we have to do that. In a village, there are unmarried people in their 30s and 40s. Do you think we will sit and watch our girls roaming around with other boys? We have a 1500-member strong youth wing in Erode. If you try to touch our community girls, we will root out the embryo in the womb itself.”

He further added, “We have decided that if someone else (from another community) takes away (elopes with) our girls, we will try to counsel them over it. If they listen to us, both will be spared. If not, we are ready to kill both of them.”

He then goes on to narrate an incident in Kanchi that took place 5-6 years before the event in the video. It was a case of eloping and they tried to counsel the people involved and told them not to elope with a person from another caste. They did not listen to what we told them and justified how they would take care of a child if it were to be born. He counselled the girl once again and told her that if she wanted to see the boy she loved alive, she had to forget and let go of him. If not, he warned her that the boy would be slaughtered. This, he said, was at a different time. He also proudly said that he and his community youth wing were ready to go to jail for this cause.

He also proclaimed that if any male or female from the Gounder community was facing an issue, one must not hesitate to take a violent step. He added, “If the police think I am promoting terrorism, yes we are. Try to stop it.”

He further said, “Give rice, pulses, clothes to the oppressed communities, but if you make law convenient for them then the Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam will take law in our hands. Law and order will go haywire in Tamil Nadu. You people are claiming free houses and food by proclaiming your caste. You use your caste to claim concessions and allowance (benefits), why do you feel pained when we mention the caste name? A beggar can be called a beggar only, can we call him master?”

He continued his speech by saying, “Yesterday there was a debate and the topic was “Hard work is development/progress”. But the verdict of the debate was that “Culture is progress”. I pondered how this could be because I progressed because of hard work.” He then enumerated the businesses he set up and complained that even after all this, he could not find a bride for his son. He said, “I had to go to Kerala to find a bride for him. Such was the situation. What is the reason for that? Cultural degradation. That’s when I thought it over. Even if we earn a lot, we should protect our culture.”

He further added that we must not point fingers at the girls of the community alone. He pointed out that parents enroll children in big schools but fail to inculcate knowledge about their own culture. He added, “If your child hands you his salary, we parents don’t say a word. We just listen to what they say. If we wait for the child to repay the loans at the age of 23 and let them work further at their job, they will elope with someone else. What is the point of crying then?”

The video concludes when he says, “Our boys intend to take care of the girl he is married to and works hard for it. But the boys from other communities look at our girls as prized possessions who come from wealthy families.” He ends by warning the intelligence department that in the coming days, murders will occur in Kongunadu.

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