News Tamil Nadu

“Nirmala Mami”: DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran Makes Casteist Jibes At FM Nirmala Sitharaman, Spreads Canards Against Brahmins

August 22, 2023
The Commune

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam organised a “day-long fast” on 20 August 2023 to protest against the union government’s insistence on continuing with the exam.

Speaking at the event, DMK MP and former Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, made several casteist remarks against Brahmins and in particular against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Casteist Jibe At Nirmala Sitharaman

He said, “Anitha’s (the girl who died by suicide in 2017 after being unable to secure a medical seat) brother spoke here today and he said 2017, the year Anitha died, was an important year. Why do you think is it an important year? It is because in 2016, J Jayalalithaa passed away and BJP wanted to use every opportunity to come to power with the help of the “slaves” and that is why they sent “Nirmala Mami”. Ok, they sent Nirmala Sitharaman. What she does is (laughs, as someone points out why he mentioned the word Mami – he responds by saying, I said it inadvertently.)

He continued to say, “That woman has no work in Tamil Nadu, she is not even an elected Rajya Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, and she has never come to this side. She claims to have been born here and probably has her roots in Tamil Nadu, she knows several languages but doesn’t care for the state at all.”

The word Mami is used as a slur and in derogatory fashion especially by Dravidian ideologues when addressing Tamil Brahmin women in Tamil Nadu. Netizens questioned the hypocrisy of Dayanidhi Maran to address Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as “mami” when he himself has married a Tamil Brahmin from The Hindu family. It is also noteworthy that Murasoli Maran, the father of Dayanidhi Maran and nephew of M Karunanidhi was also married to a Tamil Brahmin woman.

This is not the first time that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been targeted by DMK and other Dravidianists for her Brahmin woman identity.

Earlier, former Justice Chandru had hurled casteist slurs at Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman calling her “Ooruga Maami“,  a casteist and a sexist reference to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Brahmin and woman identity.

Taking to Twitter, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party Secretary of State tweeted, “He who used BSNL connections for his business use should feel ashamed for talking such improper words against Nirmala Sitharaman who has not had a single corruption complaint against her since assuming office. But how can one expect shame from the Karunanidhi family?”

Dayanidhi Maran On Brahmins

Dayanidhi Maran also targeted Brahmins and Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) in his speech and said, “Do you know why they like NEET? Because of sanatana dharma. A very skilled Bharatnatyam dancer who lives in Chennai, she is a very elderly lady. She says, what’s wrong with Sanatana dharma? Sanatana dharma is supreme. If you see in those days, each one continued the occupations of their communities. There used to be a time when they used to leave their children to work at my house. We used to feed them. There used to be a lot of people who would be available to do the work. Now there is no one because everyone is studying. What does he do after studying, he gets a good job and earns well. Because of this, Sanatana Dharma must continue.”

He mocks her and says, “How will we feel? All these years you people did not allow us to study, kept us in a dark room, and made us call you people Saami saami. But not anymore. Periyar came and he made us study, Anna came, and he created a revolution, Kalaignar came and he opened schools. Go to UP and see, the government is not at all bothered because there, shudras should not learn/study. Brahmins alone must study over there. But Periyar, Anna, Kalaignar, and Thalapathy (MK Stalin), what are they doing? To enable our Tamil Nadu people to study, they created state board schools and Tamil medium schools everywhere. You people gave us a cut-off of 100%, our students got 99.9% and you couldn’t bear it because you were worried that shudras are studying so hard. You were worried that your position is threatened because a shudra became a doctor and your people cannot study. So to mitigate that situation, you change the goalposts. That is why they have created this thing called NEET.”

He also claimed that NEET was based on a flawed marking system and that it was unnecessary and it prevented Tamilians, especially shudras from becoming doctors.

It is noteworthy that many students from government schools have been able to crack the NEET exam over the years. Critics condemn the politicisation of a tragic event such as a suicide of a young child by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members.

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