Udhayanidhi Stalin, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development in Tamil Nadu and son of the Chief Minister MK Stalin, has been slammed on the internet for his alleged “insensitivity” in the background of the brutal caste killing incident in Chennai’s Pallikaranai. Udhayanidhi, who is also a producer and an actor, on Sunday, February 25, wrote an appreciative post on the Malayalam film Manjummel Boys. “Watched #ManjummelBoys ! Just WOW! Don’t miss it ! Congratz to the team !”, he wrote.
Several were offended by the timing of the post and the minister’s silence on the caste killing which took place in Pallikaranai. On February 24, 22-year-old Praveen, belonging to Adi Dravidar community – categorised as Scheduled Caste in the state – was hacked to death by five persons for marrying a woman from the OBC community.
Praveen had married Sharmi against her family’s wishes in November 2023.
Sharmi’s brother, Dinesh, the primary accused in the case, bore a grudge against Praveen. On the day of the crime, Dinesh and four of his friends visited a bar where Praveen was present. The accused approached Praveen with an intent to pick an argument. As the argument escalated, they attacked him with knives and fled from the spot. Praveen was rushed to the Government Hospital in Chrompet but he succumbed to the injuries. All the five accused in the case have been detained by the police.
Several netizens, outraged by the minister’s ‘misplaced priorities’, expressed their anger against him and the DMK government for failing to prevent atrocities against Dalits in the state.
“This has become a pattern by the father and son duo. When there is serious caste violence taking place in TN, both of them take chances to come up with a movie review!” wrote Arvind Santhosham.
Dalits have accused the DMK party of overlooking crimes against the Scheduled Caste communities under its governance. “Dravidian model is ignoring dishonour killings and caste atrocities against the Dalits and brushing it under the carpet. It's like we don't even exist, we are reduced to a news item or a condolence message. Justice seems to be a utopian dream,” wrote another X user.
Besides the drug bust, the DMK is also embroiled in a controversy over its former party member Jaffer Siddiq being investigated by agencies for allegedly running a drug smuggling ring. Jaffer, who was the DMK’s Chennai West Deputy Organiser (NRI Wing), was dismissed from the party on Sunday for bringing “dishonour” to the party.
“Utter disgrace of a TN cabinet minister to tweet about Cinema when an honour killing has occurred in the state. This nonchalance would be the final nail in @arivalayam's coffin,” wrote Sai Balaguru Ganess.