Vijay’s TVK demands caste census, condemns Wakf Bill and ‘one nation, one election’ principle

Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), founded by actor-politician Vijay, has criticized the Tamil Nadu government for “evading” the topic of caste census. At the executive committee meeting held on November 3, the party also passed resolutions against the Union government’s Waqf Amendment Bill and the One Nation One Election scheme and also demanded that education be transferred to the list of states from the concurrent list. A total of 26 decisions were made at the meeting.

The meeting was held at the party headquarters at Panayur in Chennai and was attended by TMC high command, district secretaries and general secretary Bussy Anand, besides Vijay himself.

TBC has taken a strong stand on the demand for a caste census at the national and state level. “People will not believe the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) who claim to be on the path of social justice but have not conducted a caste census to achieve this social justice,” the TMC resolution said. It added that “the DMK’s attempt to evade the caste census by blaming the Union government will not work.” In this regard, the party demanded that the state government immediately take steps to conduct a caste census.

Vijaya’s party also criticized the Union government’s ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal to hold elections to the Legislative Assembly and Parliament simultaneously. Condemning the scheme and calling it undemocratic, the party said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government was secretly and directly working against the principles of democracy.

“Opposition parties are not only obliged, but also have the right to highlight the real problems of society and oppose anti-people policies. Government attempts to suppress this right through backlash, by preventing the press from functioning freely, by attacking individuals on social media are all anti-people approaches. We condemn such policies by everyone, including the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu,” TVK added.

The party also criticized and demanded withdrawal of the Union government’s proposed waqf amendment, saying it was “against the rights of Muslims”. The bill is currently before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) following fierce opposition in Parliament.

TVK also demanded that the Union government move education to the state list from the parallel list, which they pointed out would enable the state government to ban the controversial National Eligibility Test (NEET) for admission to medical programmes. The party also criticized the BJP for its differences over language rights, Tamil identity and Tamil-Thai vazhtu.

He also condemned the construction of a second airport in Parandur and the expansion of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, which were opposed by farmers and environmentalists.