In yet another instance, an evidently anti-Brahmin cartoon was posted from the official social media account of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). However, Congress’s reaction to the controversy is quite bizarre. The age-old party, which is in an alliance with the DMK in the southern state refused to hold its ally responsible for the contentious post and said that it does not believe in the concept of religion.
While speaking Congress’s Aassan Maulaana said that Congress is a secular party that does not believe in any religion. The party leader made the statement on being asked about Congress’s silence on the issue and why it has not asked its ally to take down the post.
“To be very clear with this, this is an anti-Brahmin cartoon which is the basic ideology of the DMK that says Brahmins dominated Dravidians and didn’t allow them to grow,” Mulana told .
On being asked if he supports the DMK’s ideology and the anti-Brahmin hatred being spread by the party, the Congress leader said, “the very ideology of DMK is anti-Brahmin, while the ideology of Congress is that we don’t believe in any religion or caste. We are Indians.”
The post was shared by DMK on February 14 on Twitter and triggered a massive uproar in the country. The content contained a comic attacking Brahmins with casteist stereotyping and jibes.
The cartoon shows a group of Brahmin people discussing the Madras Presidency Association saying “A few people gather against the Non-Brahmin Association. A consultative meeting was held at one person’s house.”
The Madras Presidency Association was a faction within the Indian National Congress that was formed to counter the divisive strategy of the Justice Party which was acting as a British stooge.
In the second picture, one man says “Mr Pillai, put some of the Shudras of the Congress party in that (Madras Presidency Association).”
The third board depicts an imaginary conversation between two Brahmins where one of them says “Avaa (Tamil Brahmin slang) Kai viraalalye avaa kannai kuththivittom oi (Tamil Brahmin slang)” which translates to “we poked their eyes with their own fingers”.
In the last picture, one of the Tamil Brahmin men is shown saying “Haven’t we been doing this for thousands of years?”
