In a surprising twist, Puthiya Tamilagam, founded by Dr. K. Krishnasamy, has warned ‘fake associations’, masquerading as representatives of the Devendrakula Vellalar community, from publishing advertisements about how the recently-appointed BJP State president, Nainar Nagenthran, had supported the Devendrakula Vellalar cause in the Assembly, when the activists have been toiling hard on the ground.

The high-level committee of the party said in a statement that for more than 30 years, the party had been raising its voice for the recognition of the seven sub-sects of the community as a single entity — under the unified name Devendrakula Vellalar — and for delisting them from the SC category.

“We held conferences in Chennai in 2017, a rally in Delhi, conferences in Virudhunagar and Tiruchi in 2018, fasting protests across 10,000 villages in 2019, mass petition submissions with village leaders to district collectors across Tamil Nadu, and in 2021, a massive rally in Madurai defying restrictions. Due to these relentless protests, the name change was announced during the 2021 State election,” the statement said.

The statement further said that the issue could have been easily resolved by passing a Bill to delist the community from the SC list immediately after passing one to name the seven communities as Devendrakula Vellalar.

The party further said, “Those who did not pass the delisting Bill in Parliament, are now pretending they’ll fix it by speaking in the State Assembly? This is a calculated scam, a self-promoting deception that the community must entirely reject.”