A Christian DMK MLA was seen making a sanitary worker clean the sewer with bare hands. The MLA threatened to file cases against those who shared the video of the incident claiming that he didn’t directly ask the worker to use bare hands. He also claimed that it was not a sewer but a gully clogged with mud and leaves.
‘Dalit Christian’ activist and The Quint columnist Shalin Maria Lawrence shared a video of the MLA tweeting that he “forced a corporation sanitation worker to clean a sewer with his bare hands”. She criticised the government and sought the MLA to be booked under the Prevention of Manual Scavenging Act and the SC, ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. Even though she is a DMK sympathiser, Lawrence questioned the government’s silence and inaction over the issue.
John Ebenezer, the concerned MLA of RK Nagar constituency in Chennai, responded to her accusations saying he didn’t even talk to the worker and threatened to file a complaint. He claimed it was not drainage but a drinking water pipeline clogged with only mud and leaves. The incident happened during his MLA at Your Doorstep campaign in his constituency when the public complained about the clogging. Social media users questioned whether the MLA would clean it with bare hands even if it is “only mud and leaves”.
He told the Indian Express that he was talking with the Assistant Engineer, questioning why the clogging wasn’t cleared away when the sanitation worker was made to clean with his bare hands. He claimed that he was receiving a good response to his MLA at Your Doorstep campaign and those who couldn’t tolerate the MLA gaining a good name spread rumors.
Lawrence, who brought out the issue earlier, suggested that conversion is the only way to stop BJP’s growth in TN. She feared that BJP would use atheism as a weapon. She further said in the post that only “cultural changes” or “restoring history” will defeat religious hate campaigns. Later she abused her Brahmin neighbour for objecting to the wi-fi line passing through their house and wanted to book them under the SC ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
When netizens called her out for her bigotry, she called them “RSS supporting Shudras”. She also started abusing using cuss words as she couldn’t counter the logical questions and deactivated her account for a short period. At that time, she lamented that she couldn’t file cases under the draconian atrocities act for her imagined discrimination, like not getting wi-fi because she is a Christian.
Now when a truly discriminated person is oppressed by her own ilk, she can only outrage and vent on social media despite being an ‘activist’. The DMK IT wing and party sympathisers trolled her for sharing the video and criticising the DMK government. But while she freely abused those who called out her casteism and Hindumisia, she merely she is weak and so will shut up and talk about the DMK government’s misdeeds.
Such people are the curse of socially and economically downtrodden communities. Lawrence clearly mentioned in her tweets that she would stop talking/writing about the current government in TN because she wants to live a “normal life with no opportunities canceled”. The likes of her not only cheat the downtrodden claiming that Christianity treats everyone equally and there is no caste in it, but also sabotage their cause by claiming to be their representatives even as they act as the agents of Dravidian organisations all the while.
The DMK on the other hand is nothing but the extension of the church in the political realm. If anyone was in any doubt about the party’s principles and goals, the CM, his son and ministers have time and again assured the public that if not for Christians, they wouldn’t have come to power and that the government was in fact installed by them. Dravidian ideology and Christianity are not that different when it comes to ‘Dalits’. They are the stick both use to beat Hindus with and to uproot Sanatana Dharma.
