DMK leader’s remark ‘people from UP, Bihar cleaning toilets in rich-state Tamil Nadu’ sparks row, Tejashwi reacts

Following uproar over comments by DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran’s alleged remark that people from the Hindi heartland were cleaning toilets and doing other menial jobs in Tamil Nadu, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday condemned saying that the remarks were “reprehensible”.

Yadav said like his RJD, the DMK headed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was a party that believed in social justice and it was unbecoming of a leader of such a party to have made such a remark.

“But to speak disparagingly of the entire populace of Bihar and UP is reprehensible. We condemn it. We believe that people should be respectful towards those coming from other parts of the country”, asserted Yadav.

“We look upon DMK as a party which shares our ideal of social justice. Its leaders should avoid saying things that run counter to the ideal”, said Yadav, who is known to share personal equations with Stalin.

A row has been triggered over Maran’s recent speech, in Tamil, in which the former Union minister had stressed on the importance of English education. Maran had claimed that those who acquired proficiency in English got respectable jobs in the IT sector unlike residents of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who knew only Hindi and ended up migrating to richer states like Tamil Nadu for “cleaning toilets and roads and working as construction labour”.

The ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, of which RJD is the largest constituent, and the DMK-helmed Secular Progressive Alliance, are now part of the INDIA coalition.

After the video went viral, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said in a post on X, “Once again an attempt to play the Divide & Rule card. First Rahul Gandhi insulted North Indian voters. Then Revanth Reddy abused Bihar DNA. Then DMK MP Senthil Kumar said “Gaumutra states”.”

“Now Dayanidhi Maran insults Hindi speakers and North. Abusing Hindus/Sanatan, then playing divide and rule card is DNA of INDI. Will Nitish Kumar, Tejaswi Yadav, Lalu Yadav, Congress, SP Akhilesh Yadav all pretend that this isn’t happening ? When will they take a stand? (sic),” he wrote on X.