Tamil Nadu

Madhu Kishwar misquotes 2016 DMK manifesto, party says she is hate mongering

A quick look at the DMK's manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha Election reveals that the pages Madhu Kishwar mentions do not even exist.

Written by : Priyanka Thirumurthy

Indian academic Madhu Purnima Kishwar took to Twitter on Thursday to insinuate that the DMK had scant regard for lands belonging to Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu. As per her tweet, the Dravidian major's manifesto had promised that “people occupying encroached temple lands will be regularised and ownership transferred” and right below that she claimed that the DMK had assured “Encroached Waqf properties will be reclaimed and handed over to wakf”. 

The tweet since being posted has gotten over 6000 retweets, especially from supporters of the BJP who have chosen to outrage over the alleged 'anti-Hindu, pro-Muslim' stance of the DMK. However, a quick look at the DMK's manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha Election reveals that the pages the academic mentions do not even exist. Her references date back to the party's 2016 manifesto for Assembly Elections. However, she has, according to the DMK, not only misquoted the poll document but also misrepresented the stance of the party on the matter. 

On page 111 of the DMK's 2016 English manifesto, under the sub heading 'Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowment Department' (HRCE), the document states, "Besides regulating and collecting rent to be received by the temple trust from temple lands, a Land Bank will be established for protecting vacant land belonging to temple. Moreover, a high level committee led by a retired judge will be constituted for considering the demand of people, who are offering to purchase the temple land within the legal frame work."

Page 85 in the 2016 manifesto, meanwhile, which carries content on welfare of minorities, states that “Properties of Wakf Board will be recovered from encroachments and protected”.

While Madhu Kishwar quote tweeted another Twitter user, who claimed that the source of their allegation was from DMK’s 2016 Tamil manifesto, the search result for the page “could not be found”.  

However, the party’s Tamil manifesto was the same as the one in English and made no such promise, as claimed by Madhu Kishwar.  

While several Twitter users have called out the academician for posting false information from her handle, the DMK alleges that this is a deliberate act of hate mongering. The party has also complained against Madhu Kishwar to the Election Commission for 'promoting hate between two communities'. 

"This topic doesn't feature at all in the DMK's 2019 manifesto. This is a deliberate attempt to show us as anti-Hindu. She is a known BJP bhakt and this is an act of hate mongering," alleges DMK spokesperson A Saravanan. "The DMK respects all religions and has never treated any one religion unfairly. We are the ones who established the HRCE and appointed a minister to administer the temple properties and welfare. While only upper caste Hindus classify as Hindus for the BJP, we see all castes as the same," he adds. 

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