Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and Minister for Forests K Ponmudy has been removed from his position as deputy general secretary of the party. Chief Minister MK Stalin made this announcement in a statement on Friday, April 11. The move comes after Ponmudy's recent remarks on Shaivism and Vaishnavism.
A video of the minister making a crude sexual joke involving the Shaivites and Vaishnavites went viral on social media, inviting severe criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as from DMK MP K Kanimozhi. “The recent speech of minister Ponmudy is not acceptable. For whatever reason he had spoken, such vulgar words are condemnable,” the MP had said.
Earlier, Ponmudy had made controversial remarks about Hindi-speaking migrant workers, saying those who “speak in Hindi” are engaged in “selling pani puri”. “While English is an international language, Tamil is a local language. We were told that learning Hindi could land us with jobs. Is that so? You go and see in our state and in Coimbatore. Who are those people who sell pani puris?,” the Minister had asked during the convocation event at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore.