Thursday, 24 April 2025
Thursday, 24 April 2025
DMK president and chief minister M.K. Stalin stripped K. Ponmudy of his post as deputy general secretary of the party, after Tamil Nadu’s forest minister found himself at the centre of a political and social controversy after a video of his derogatory remarks on women went viral Thursday.
The minister still holds on to his Cabinet berth.
The video, which The Telegraph Online has not verified, shows Ponmudy sharing a vulgar anecdote between a man and a sex worker, preceded by a disclaimer asking women in the audience not to “mistake him.”
The “joke” triggered condemnation across party lines, from both within the DMK and the opposition.
DMK MP Kanimozhi, said, “Minister Ponmudy’s recent speech is unacceptable. Regardless of the reason, such vulgar remarks are condemnable.”
BJP’s Khushbu Sundar called out CM Stalin: “Will you ever have the guts to throw him out of his chair and position? Or (do) you and your party find sadistic pleasures in insulting women and Hinduism in making such disgusting comments?”
BJP leader K. Annamalai said: “The entire DMK ecosystem is vulgar, foul-mouthed, and uncouth. The chief minister must hang his head in shame for leading this disgraceful pack,” he said.
AIADMK national spokesperson Kovai Sathyan said, “He is a disgrace to the public and people like him are the true representation of DMK and their parent body DK. They go to any extent to mock a religious belief and mock the practices of a particular sect and that too particularly with respect to Hindu religious beliefs. We strongly condemn it.”
Tamil singer and activist Chinmayi Sripada also spoke on the issue.
“This is minister of forests, mister Ponmudi from Tamilnadu. He previously held posts as a minister for science and tech; and education in Tamilnadu. He describes a ‘joke’ because apparently there is a ‘market’ for these jokes in a public gathering, about a man who goes to a sex worker’s house. Apparently she asks the man if he is Shaivite or Vaishnavite and goes on to describe in detail about positions if the man were Shaivite or Vaishnavite. Such a speech must have demanded Periyar’s photo in the background. This is a joke. The joke is on us. No wonder they are all hand in glove with molester poetttttu. There has GOT to be some sort of a divinity or a Goddess or a God that will punish this and raze this to the ground. But doesnt look like God exists."
Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT cell chief, said Ponmudy equated Hindu symbols with sexual innuendos.
“He has taken the baton of Hindu-bashing forward after deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s attack on Sanatan Dharma last year,” Malviya said.
He alleged Ponmudy’s speech “mockingly reduced sacred Hindu symbols to crude sexual innuendos. Referring to the Shaivite horizontal tilak as ‘lying down position’ and the Vaishnavite vertical tilak as ‘standing position,’ his remarks were not just offensive—they were deliberately insulting to the core beliefs of two major Hindu sects.”
Malviya also said Ponmudy had earlier belittled Hindi speakers who stay in Tamil Nadu. “In 2022, he targeted Hindi speakers in Tamil Nadu, belittling them as panipuri sellers—another example of his divisive rhetoric.”
