Cutting across party line, TN leaders pay tributes to Thevar community icon Muthuramalingam

Leaders cutting across the political divide on Thursday made a beeline to Pasumpon, a nondescript village in the southern Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, to pay tributes to late Thevar community icon, U Muthuramalingam, a former MP and Tamil Nadu leader of the Forward Bloc.

From Vice President C P Radhakrishnan to Chief Minister M K Stalin and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) besides Vaiko of MDMK were among those who paid their respects at the memorial of the late leader on the occasion of his birth and death anniversary, observed as guru pooja. And, it has become a ritual for political leaders to visit the village on the occasion.

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“Thevar symbolises spirituality and patriotism and he was a leader not only for a particular caste but for all communities. A follower of Netaji Subash Bose, he served the nation and continues to be an inspiration,” the Vice-President said speaking to reporters at Pasumpon. “We should transcend caste barriers and be united as Indians in the service of the nation,” he added.

The Chief Minister who paid tributes to the late leader was accompanied by his cabinet colleagues and DMK functionaries. Later, in a post on ‘X’, he hailed the Thevar icon as a ‘freedom fighter who fought against oppressive laws’. He also announced that a marriage hall would be constructed at Pasumpon.

Initially travelling in the Congress, Muthuramalingam joined the Forward Bloc of Netaji following the rise of K Kamaraj in the Congress ranks. He became a bitter critic of Kamaraj, who later became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, then Madras State.

Following the widespread anti-Dalit riots in the then composite Ramanathapuram district and the murder of Dalit activist Immanuel Sekaran, a young Congress leader, he was arrested and imprisoned in September 1957. The then Congress Government held him accountable for instigating caste violence. However, he was acquitted by a trial court in January 1959.

Though the Thevar community remained a solid vote bank of the AIADMK since its launch by the iconic actor MG Ramachandran and during the stewardship of Jayalalithaa, now the party has lost its hold. It was late Jayalalithaa who announced to provide gold plates for the Thevar statue in Pasumpon in 2010 ahead of next year’s assembly election and donated the 13 kg gold kavach in 2014. The statue has been adorned with the plates every year since then.