Chennai: Sometime in 1995, Thol Thirumavalavan, the then leader of the Dalit Panthers Movement, was seen on the streets of Tamil Nadu, aggressively protesting for the injustice against the Dalits.
It was at the same time, that the Ambedkarite leaders in other parts of India — Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and Ramdas Athawale of Republican Party of India (Athawale) in Maharashtra — were signing papers at their state secretariats as chief minister and state cabinet minister in their state.
Cut to 2024, Mayawati’s BSP drew a blank this time and Athawale did not even get to contest a single seat in the Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, Thol
Thirumavalavan’s Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) won in Chidambaram and Villupuram with a vote share of 2.25 percent.
With this, after 25 years since entering into the electoral foray, the party has gained the State party recognition. VCK would be the fifth political party in Tamil Nadu, after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMDK) to earn the tag.
However, as PMK and DMDK have lost the recognition due to their past performances, VCK would be the third state party in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), which secured more than 8 percent of vote, is also likely to be recognised as a state party.
“At a time, when PMK and DMDK, who were recognised as a state party, have lost their recognition, a party that speaks of Ambedkarite ideology in South India, getting this recognition is historic. This movement is now being recognised as an organisation for all the people and it is a milestone in the 25 years of VCK’s journey,” Thol Thirumavalavan told ThePrint.
While the recognition of VCK is being welcomed as a gesture of acceptance by more common people than Dalits, Ambedkarite writers and researchers fear that its core idea of Dalit emancipation may be diluted in the future.
“There is fear that VCK might tone down their stance on Dalit issues, which might compromise on the interests of Dalits over the voter share of other castes” says writer Stalin Rajangam from Madurai, adding that in electoral politics, it may not be possible for once aggressive political movements to demonstrate the same kind of aggression.
But, VCK’s general secretary and MLA Sinthanai Selvan says that it cannot be considered as a compromise and that it could only be seen as a strategy to get the issue sorted through political power. “The ultimate aim is to attain political power without compromising on the ideology. Once you slowly start getting it, we can empower Dalits.”
The VCK traces its origin way back to 1982 when the Dalits Panther Iyakkam (DPI) was formed as a Tamil Nadu wing of Bharatiya Dalit Panthers (BDP). Political activist A. Malaichamy led the outfit, and Thirumavalavan joined it in 1988 while he was working in the forensic department in Madurai. After the demise of Malaichamy in 1989, Thirumavalavan was elected as the leader of DPI.
After nine years of groundwork in Madurai and the surrounding area, he founded a political party named VCK, inspired by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.
Rejecting the Sanskritised names, in line with the Ambedkarite and Tamil nationalist ideology, Thirumavalavan renamed his father’s birthname Ramasamy into Tholkappiar after the author of Tholkappiam, an ancient extant Tamil literature, at a party conference in 2002.
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Support for Ambedkarite parties: TN vs other states
A couple of months ago, Thol Thirumavalavan was seen explaining to his disappointed workers about the poll arithmetic and the necessity to be in alliance with the INDIA bloc at the national level and DMK at the state level.
“I know you all have been disappointed. But, we cannot let down our ideals and our ideological stance against the Hindutva forces, just for one or two seats. Even if we get those one or two seats in the other alliance, what about the image that we have built all these years, won’t it be compromised?” Thirumavalavan explained.
Though there was not any usual roaring and applause, Thirumavalavan’s tranquil delivery of the message helped the workers to understand electoral politics better.
“That’s exactly what helped Thirumavalavan and D. Ravikumar despite contesting an independent new symbol,” shares a political strategist who worked with the VCK’s IT wing.
The strategist says that the image of being in the INDIA bloc reflected on the ground. “Thirumavalavan being recognised on par with the other senior INDIA leaders has got the attention of the people. That’s also one of the reasons why he even skipped a day campaign at Chidambaram and attended the INDIA alliance meeting,” the strategist shares.
Among the prominent Ambedkarite parties, the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi also drew a blank in Maharashtra. In contrast, Chandra Shekhar of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) managed to win in Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina.
Given the alliance and caste arithmetic, Karthikeyan says that it would be inappropriate to compare VCK with the other Ambedkarite parties in UP and Maharashtra.
“Both the parties (BSP/RPI) have joined hands with BJP and even VCK was part of NDA in the past. But, now the problem is, they came with the promise of emancipating the Dalits and because of this electoral system, they lost their way. Because facing elections is not an easy task for a Dalit party that lacks resources.”
Karthikeyan also says that the Ambedkarite parties in the other parts of the country had different strategies to face elections, which was not possible in Tamil Nadu. “In UP, Mayawati even took the confidence of Brahmins. But, that kind of caste arithmetic is not possible in Tamil Nadu, where the OBC population is highly dominated. So, that’s why it took so much time for VCK to emerge.”
Future of VCK
Clad in his usual white t-shirt embroidered with the DMK’s youth wing emblem and VCK party blue and red towel around his neck, DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin declared the campaign crowd as evidence of the guaranteed astounding victory of Thirumavalavan in Chidambaram.
Thirumavalavan, who won with a slim margin of 3,219 votes in 2019, logged an impressive victory margin of 1,03,554 votes.
“The party has been tagged as a Dalit party for so long, but our leader has voiced out not just for Daits, but for everyone including the OBCs and minorities. But, this is the first time we could see people accepting him as a leader for all,” VCK worker S. Tamilarasan says.
Rajangam agrees that Thirumavalavan has been accepted as the leader of the larger section of the people including the OBCs. “Winning two Lok Sabha seats is like winning about 12 assembly segments, which is a huge victory for a political movement that speaks for the oppressed. It is also historic to be accepted by the common people.”
Citing the past examples of how VCK could not exert pressure on the DMK over some of the caste atrocities, the writer says the VCK pressure would be more as the recognition they have got is not just from Dalits alone, but also from the other voters.
“The role of caste in electoral politics has increased so much in Tamil Nadu that a caste association has entered the CPM party office and attacked it. However, DMK has not even condemned the incident. Similarly, in the past, when human excreta was found mixed in water in Vengaivayal village in Pudukkottai district, there was no reaction from the government. During such incidents, VCK might find itself in a difficult position to raise its voice,” he says.
Karthikeyan Damodaran, assistant professor at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), agrees with Rajangam and says that the VCK party had to face the pressure of navigating through tough terrain.
“With the rise in atrocities against the Dalits, being part of the ruling DMK alliance and rising up as a leader for all, he has a lot of responsibilities. He should not mince his voice on Dalit issues. At the same time, the party has to establish its strongholds on the ground and strengthen them for the future to increase its bargaining power in the upcoming elections,” Karthikeyan says, adds that the party should establish a sense of autonomy outside the DMK shadow.
VCK leaders firmly believe that they were able to raise their voice for the Dalits more than ever only after entering into the State assembly and parliament.
“We may not be vigorous, but we can do what we want to do for the Dalit people. It was on 13 April, 2022, that we met the CM and requested to declare 14 April, the birth anniversary of Ambedkar, as an “Equality Day”. The very next morning he declared it in the assembly. Similarly, I requested the CM to bring in an institutional mechanism for a development action plan for SC/STs. The CM immediately accepted and the act was brought in the assembly. Now it has even got the governor’s assent,” says VCK MLA Sinthanai Selvan.
The act was enacted by the Tamil Nadu assembly to put an institutional mechanism for the preparation, approval, implementation and monitoring of the development action plan for the SC/STs.
“Now with this, the funds will be properly allocated for the SC/STs and it would also be monitored how it is being spent. Until now, the funds were not even spent. They were either diverted for some other work or it was never spent,” Selvan claims.
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From being a Dalit party to a party for all
In a clip recorded at a webinar in September 2020, on Periyar and Indian Politics, Thol Thirumavalavan was seen saying, “How are women valued in Sanatana Dharma? How are they treated? Generations after generation, how are they oppressed? How are they taken advantage of? What does Sanatana Dharma say about women?
“Women were basically created by god as prostitutes. All women are prostitutes as per Hindu Dharma, Manu Dharma. Women are secondary to men, this is the same for Brahmin women and for the women from other communities. This is what Sanatana Dharma says.”
While BJP and Hindutva leaders condemned it, Thirumavalavan did not mince his voice against Sanatana Dharma. “I did not say anything that is not there in the Sanatana Dharma. I only said that it is being written in Dharma.”
He in fact went on to print certain sections of the Sanatana Dharma in Tamil and went on to distribute them to the people, taking organised protests against Sanatana Dharma.
“The onus is always on the Dalit parties to fight against the Hindutva forces and Thirumavalavan has been a nightmare to them,” says NLSIU’s Karthikeyan.
Thirumavalavan did not limit himself to the leader of Dalits alone. “Even when the Supreme Court delivered its judgement on the Babri case, it was Thirumavalavan who first registered his strong opposition to building a Ram temple at the masjid site, while even its senior alliance partner DMK was silent on it,” adds Karthikeyan.
Despite the meagre vote share and a scattered support base across Tamil Nadu, the VCK seniors wanted to increase their base on the ground not just in terms of numbers but on the ideological lines.
“It is easy to increase the numbers, but, at some point, they will all fall out if they find a new person. Only if we strengthen them ideologically, the party will not be disrupted like the AIADMK, which was built just on the stardom of cine stars,” VCK deputy general secretary Vanniyarasu says.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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