“Despite talking so much about social justice, Dalits in Tamil Nadu were facing atrocities every other day,” Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi took a jibe at the state government on Sunday, February 13. He made the comment referring to the recent incident in Tamil Nadu’s Vengavayal, where the drinking water source of Dalit families was contaminated with human excreta. Giving examples of public humiliation or assault on Dalit people by dominant castes, denial of entry into temples and discrimination as anganwadis, the Governor said that the police response has been “awful”. This goes against the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) claim of being “protector of social justice”, he said, according to The Hindu.
Governor Ravi made the statements when speaking during the book release of the Tamil versions of Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery and Ambedkar & Modi — Reformer's Ideals, Performer's Implementation, in Chennai. Stating that only 7% of rape cases filed by Dalit women end in convictions, he said, “Out of 100 rapists, 93 go scot free and we talk about social justice and Babasaheb.”
Governor Ravi also pointed to the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India report. He said that 30% of funds from the Union government that is allocated for building houses for Dalits remained unspent in Tamil Nadu and is allegedly diverted for other purposes. “So much for social justice,” he added. He also said that earlier, Dr BR Ambedkar was “used only for political mobilisation”, and that everyone began talking about him because of PM Modi.
He also used the term ‘Darwinian model of development’, in which “the ‘smarter’ got more resources causing regional imbalances and contrasts like ‘south vs north’ and ‘west vs east’.” Later, he also added, “People come up with some model or other, very fanciful model without knowing what that model is all about,” in a jibe against the Dravidian model of governance propagated by the DMK.