Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stood in Parliament and referred to IIT Madras Director V. Kamakoti as a “gaumutra expert.”
Priyanka Gandhi called IIT Madras Director Prof. V. Kamakoti a “Gaumutra visheshagya” in Parliament.
Her own qualification: BA Psychology + Master’s in Buddhist Studies.
Now look at Prof. Kamakoti’s credentials:
• MS & PhD in Computer Science from IIT Madras
• Director, IIT… pic.twitter.com/92YJ80upsB— Yash Rawat (@india_expert) July 28, 2026
She wasn’t referring to an anonymous social media user. She was referring to the head of one of India’s premier engineering institutions.
Kamakoti led the team that built SHAKTI, India’s first indigenous microprocessor. He’s a Padma Shri awardee with a PhD from IIT Madras. By any measure, a serious scientist.
None of that mattered. He got reduced to a caricature on the floor of Parliament because he’d said cow urine has medicinal properties.
And Tamil Nadu’s political class said nothing.
No DMK statement. No press conference. No demand for an apology. The party that built its entire identity on “self-respect” and rationalism had nothing to say when one of the state’s own scientists was humiliated nationally.
Everyone knows why. Kamakoti is a Brahmin. His name, his family’s ties to the Kanchi Matha, his father’s background as a Sanskrit professor – none of it fits the Dravidian vote-bank calculus. Defending him means defending a Brahmin talking about cow urine, and in Tamil Nadu politics that’s radioactive.
Here’s what makes the silence worse: Kamakoti is a Tamilian. He built SHAKTI at IIT Madras, in Tamil Nadu, for India. A Congress politician stood up and mocked a son of the state on the floor of Parliament and the parties that claim to be custodians of “Tamil pride” didn’t defend him. Not as a scientist, not as a Tamilian, not as anyone. If a Delhi politician had mocked a Tamil filmmaker or a Tamil sportsperson in the same tone, Dravidianists would have declared it an insult to the state. But Tamil pride, like Dravidian rationalism, turns out to have a caste filter. It shows up for some Tamilians and not others.
Run the counterfactual. If a scientist from a ‘community that must not be named’ with the same credentials had been mocked the same way, the DMK would have put out statements within the hour. The VCK would have called it an assault on the community’s dignity. It would be all over social media by evening.
And they’d be right to be angry.
That’s the problem. The outrage isn’t about principle – it’s about which community the victim belongs to. When a Brahmin gets attacked, the silence is total. When any other community gets attacked, the microphones show up instantly. That’s not social justice. That’s caste calculation wearing a justice costume.
The Dravidian movement claimed it would stand for not judging people by birth. An IIT director gets mocked for his scientific claims; fine, debate the science. But he got mocked because of his caste, and the same politicians who claim to fight caste discrimination looked away because fighting for him didn’t pay politically.
Ask Tamil Nadu’s MPs a simple question: is an insult to a Brahmin not an insult at all? If their answer is silence and so far, it has been, then the Dravidian project has become exactly what it claims to oppose: a system where your caste decides whether you’re owed dignity.
Subscribe to our channels on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and YouTube to get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
