Anti-Caste front to campaign for poll boycott in TN

Madurai, Apr 10 (UNI) The Anti-Caste Front (ACF), comprising four political outfits, today urged the people to boycott the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu to register disapproval of opportunistic alliances and the failure of the electoral system to root out casteism, poverty and corruption.

Addressing newspersons here, P Chandrabose of the Thiyagi Immanuel Peravai, along with other convenors of the ACF, said the forum would hold public meetings and street corner meetings all over the state to mobilise public opinion to reject the election process.

The reason for the boycott, according to him, was that dalits and the vast majority of the working class continued to ''remain in the shackles of poverty and caste oppression since Independence.'' Various parties, which had ruled at the Centre and the State had failed to implement promises made at the time of every election, he claimed.

It was regrettable that Tamil was yet to become the official language of the state in various spheres, especially in higher education and the higher judiciary. Further, no party had committed to implementing the Prevention of Atrocities Act to put an end to injustice perpetrated on Dalits and tribals, Mr Chandrabose said, adding, manifestos of all parties had ignored issues concerning the Dalits, like filling up backlog vacancies and retrieval of 'Panchami' lands, granted to them during British rule.

Further, non-conduct of elections to four reserved panchayats, including Pappapatti and Keeripatti in this district for well over a decade, where Dalits could not become presidents of local civic bodies, made a mockery of the democratic exercise, he added.

It was a shame that freebies were being assured even 59 years after independence, treating the people as 'beggars', they added.

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