Pudukkottai: Snubbed on I-Day, panchayat president hoists national flag at govt school

PUDUKKOTTAI: Thursday was another Independence Day of sorts for Senthakkudi panchayat president M Tamil Arasan as he in the presence of district collector hoisted the national flag at the government high school in Keelaiyur. 

With this, he has become the first local body representative ever from the SC/ST community to break the shackles of alleged caste discrimination and hoist the Tricolour at the lone high school catering to the entire panchayat of 13 villages.

TNIE had on August 16 reported how, despite the State government’s instructions, the panchayat president was snubbed for the headmaster to hoist the national flag at the school on Independence Day.
“The Keelaiyur high school did not call me [to hoist the flag] until 9 am.

When they finally called due to pressure from the district administration and the media, I went there with the expectation of hoisting the flag. They intentionally made me stand there while the HM hoisted it,” Tamil Arasan had told TNIE on Independence Day. 

When asked whether he could claim the rights to hoist the flag in the school, he had said, “The HM is from a dominant caste. In the previous years he allowed the panchayat vice president, who is also from a dominant caste, to hoist it, but not me.” On Thursday, Collector Kavitha Ramu visited Senthakkudi panchayat and ensured its president Tamil Arasan hoisted the national flag at the high school.