Village elders in Vellore district ostracise dalits after tussle

Vellore: Caste tension has been simmering in vanniyar-dominated Alappakkam panchayat, which falls within Sholinghur constituency in Vellore district, after non-dalits ostracised about 150 dalit families following a minor scuffle between AIADMK and PMK cadres during an election campaign.
The village elders (nattamai) passed a diktat that groceries should not be sold to the 150-odd families in the colony.Since Wednesday, the tea and barber shops in the village have also been turning away the dalits. "The peace that had prevailed in the village for more than two decades was disrupted after PMK cadres declined to allow dalits owing allegiance to AIADMK to campaign in the village. The incident occurred on Sunday," said a resident of the colony, seeking anonymity.
Around 50 AIADMK partymen, including 20 from the colony, had gone to the village to campaign on Sunday evening.
A group of five to six PMK partymen stopped them at the entrance of the village and this resulted in a heated argument. "It was all planned so that they could use the incident to consolidate the vanniyar votes in favour of PMK," claimed a member of Makkal Mantram, an NGO, and resident of the colony C Paranthaman.
The following day, dalits refused to permit the non-dalits to take a funeral procession through the colony. "Though there is an alternative route, the non-dalits use the colony to reach the burial ground. They are also dumping the garlands, clothes and other belongings of the dead persons near the colony. So, we insisted they use the alternative route and avoid dumping the waste near the colony," said another resident Ponnarasu.
Infuriated over this, village elders held a meeting and decided to ostracise the 150 families in the colony.