‘Why should we be afraid of you’: Pa Ranjith’s challenge to Tamil Nadu parties over BSP leader killing

The rally was organised by the Neelam Cultural Centre of Ranjith, who was close to Armstrong, a prominent Dalit face. Addressing the gathering, Ranjith said his “Anna (elder brother, Armstrong) was a powerful leader in Chennai city” and that there may be a “big conspiracy behind his murder”. He demanded a detailed police probe into Armstrong’s killing.

According to the police, the statements of Armstrong’s assailants who surrendered indicate that “he was killed in retaliation for the murder of a history-sheeter Arcot Suresh” last August, who was also from the Dalit community.

The police verified the identities of these assailants with the faces of those caught in the CCTV footage recovered from the crime scene, stating that one of them was Suresh’s brother Ponnai V Baalu. The police investigation found that Suresh and Armstrong had a rivalry as both were involved in solving disputes on behalf of various parties in connection with a major financial scam allegedly involving Aarudhra Gold Trading that defrauded over one lakh depositors of a total of Rs 2,438 crore between September 2020 and May 2022.

Even as the police probe has officially ruled out political and communal motives in Armstrong’s murder, several Dalits groups have not accepted its version. Armstrong was hacked to death outside his under-construction house in Chennai’s Perambur on July 5.

In his fiery speech at the rally that struck a chord with the gathering, Ranjith said that since the days of the Justice Party – the pre-Independence ideological forerunner of the present-day Dravidian parties – “Dalits have been denied everything”. “We are the children of Ambedkar, Ayodhidas Panditar, John Rathinam, Rettamalai Srinivasan, Meenammal, and even MC Rajah, who left Justice Party after being ignored. Why should we fear? Are you feeding us? Did you give us jobs? Why should we be afraid of you? Madras has more than 40% Dalits. This is a warning,” Ranjith said, reminding the ruling DMK and the principal Opposition AIADMK of their “Dalit vote bank”.

Ranjith said Armstrong fought against the discriminatory practices of Hinduism and promoted Buddhism, building the Buddhist temples. “His recent overt Buddhist life, especially after his child’s birth, may also be a reason for his murder. The Chennai city mayor (R Priya from the DMK) could get her post because of Dalit reservation. Remember that,” Ranjith said, charging that even the DMK’s SC leaders and legislators “do not stand up for Dalit leaders like Armstrong, even after his death”.

“How many MPs are you preventing from admiring Dalit leaders? How many honour killings have occurred? How many years have we suffered due to caste? Be it DMK or AIADMK, when our leaders are murdered, if you can’t even condole their death, aren’t you slaves? We are not slaves. We are the children of Ambedkar. We will not resort to violence, but we will show our significance through our votes,” Ranjith said.

Ahead of the rally, VCK chief and DMK ally Thol Thirumavalavan, the MP and prominent Dalit leader, appealed to his supporters not to attend Ranjith’s event, charging that the latter’s call for the Dalit unity “helped the cause of Dalits’ opponents”.

Addressing Thirumavalavan in his speech, Ranjith said: “Thiruma, we will never stand against you. You are our voice. We will never abandon you. But remember, there is nothing wrong with new voices. When I started Neelam Centre, Armstrong never questioned me. He encouraged it. We need many voices, many leaders, to raise our voice. Thirumavalavan need not worry – we will never stand against you, regardless of political parties.”

Ranjith also said Dalits have been “running from pillar to post for justice” for many decades. “We went from Congress to Justice Party, then to DMK, then to AIADMK, and back to DMK. We have always been voting for DMK or AIADMK. But what have you done for us? When our leader dies, you ensure he is buried outside Chennai. If we demand a memorial for him in Chennai, can you get it done? To all political parties, including Communists, we are not represented adequately. Your Dalit MLAs and MPs never stood for us. Why not? Disqualify them. Do not treat our problems like those of other communities. Our issues are different. We will continue to make efforts to make you understand about our problems. Come out of your ignorance about us,” he said.

Underscoring Tamil Nadu’s long struggle for social justice, several experts point out that reservation and government welfare schemes have uplifted and empowered various vulnerable communities like Dalits significantly over the decades, but maintain that “a large section of them continues to be deprived of real inclusion, true representation, and equitable access to resources”.

They note that in rural belts of Tamil Nadu any Dalit assertion faces “fierce backlash, especially from backward communities, leading to high rate of violence against them”. Despite accounting for over 21% of the state’s population, Dalits hold few leadership roles in major parties. While a Dalit party like the VCK is a DMK ally, the BJP is also trying to woo the Dalit vote base, which has been traditionally courted by the Dravidian parties.

A section of the Dalit leaders and thinkers says while Armstrong’s murder might have been caused by a “gang rivalry” as claimed by police, it flagged a “deeper, systemic issue about the Dalit deprivation and disempowerment”.

Some of them make the point that “Several aspiring Dalit leaders like Armstrong are pushed into engaging with the dark aspects of the political economy, which undermines their political ambitions, trapping them in a cycle that prevents their growth within or outside the mainstream parties”.

Armstrong had a law degree and helped many Dalit youths to become lawyers. But he faced deprivations in his early life, going on to face at least eight criminal cases, including three cases of attempted murder, before emerging as an established political leader.

M Mathivannan, writer and Tamil Nadu Sakkiya Arunthathiyar Sangam president, said the DMK needs to “rectify some aspects” but Ranjith’s attack on the party was “surprising”. “When our fundamental system is casteist, and leaders are Brahmins or pro-Brahmins, what had broken this in Tamil Nadu was Justice Party in the 1930s. When we look at a Dalit leader like Thirumavalavan, he evolved from a Tamil puritan to a democratic leader now. Armstrong on the other hand, was a very local leader, and he wasn’t a political threat to anyone. He tried to use the system from his vulnerable position, and was unfortunately murdered,” he said.

“It is now proven that Armstrong was not killed for political reasons or his caste. When these two aspects are clear, Ranjith’s move of taking up Armstrong’s murder politically is something to be watched,” Mathivannan said.