Chennai, August 5(BPNS)

Founder leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Dr. S. Ramadoss has said that there is no point in dropping caste names of achievers from the textbooks and called upon the state government to allow mentioning the caste names of eminent scholars in Tamil textbooks. The PMK leader was responding to the reports on the state textbook corporation dropping the caste surnames of noted Tamil scholars including U. Ve. Swaminathan Iyer and referring to him as U.Ve. Swaminathar in the Tamil text books for Class XII students.

In a statement, the PMK leader said that while the move of the government to abolish caste is welcome, the identity of the scholars would be erased.

The PMK leader who has been spearheading for the 10.5% reservation for his community, the Vanniyars, within the Most Backward Caste (MBC), in the statement said that caste system can be abolished only by creating equality among people. He said that reservation in educational institutions and for jobs are measures that are being taken up by central and state governments to ensure equality among the people. He said that other than this dropping caste surnames shows a lack of understanding of the issue.

The PMK leader also said,” There is nothing wrong in dropping the caste surnames of ordinary people but exemptions must be given to caste surnames of achievers as there is a possibility of erasing their identity.”