In a shameful incident, Tamil Nadu Forest Minister Dindigul C Sreenivasan was seen asking tribal community boys to remove his footwear as he prepared to enter a shrine in Mudumalai on Thursday.
He was at the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve to inaugurate a rejuvenation camp for captive elephants when the act was caught on camera.
The minister asked two tribal residents, who were the children of mahouts at the camp, to remove his slippers to enter the shrine. Photographers were asked not to take pictures while Conoor MLA A Ramu tried to block their view.
The incident has attracted flak from several netizens who have called the minister’s behaviour casteist and shameful.
A state forest minister makes a tribal boy remove his slippers so that he can enter a shrine in Tamil Nadu.21st CENTURY, it seems? https://t.co/GxIf3y2VOk
â Asmita Nandy (@NandyAsmita) February 6, 2020
Brazen act of caste supremacy from TN Minister Dindugal Sreenivasan. Calls tribal boy to remove the buckle on his slippers during inauguration of rejuvenation camp for captive elephants in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. @thenewsminute pic.twitter.com/fr0wSt9C09
â priyankathirumurthy (@priyankathiru) February 6, 2020
This is disgusting and cruel!#ADMK minister Dindigul Sreenivasan is ordering a boy to take off his slippers. We are seeing an inhuman act! How can he get such ideas in the first place? Goes to show how Heartless!Are we living in 21st century?This government hits another new low. https://t.co/Jg5fXZSoxJ
â George Vijay (@VijayIsMyLife) February 6, 2020
‘Hey, come here⦠come here. Remove my slippers,’ the minister is heard calling the boys. The boys were then seen removing the minister’s slippers and moving away from the spot. He was surrounded by police, party members and Nilgiris Collector J Innocent Divya who were mute spectators and did nothing to stop the minister.
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