DMK Removes Minister K Ponmudi From Party Post Over Controversial Statement On Hindu Sects

NDC DESK

Tamil Nadu Forest Minister and K Ponmudi’s viral video has sparked a political firestorm . He has been stripped off his party post after a video surfaced showing him making a controversial joke linking Hindu religious symbols to sexual positions.  

At a public event, Ponmudi narrated a story involving a man visiting a sex worker which he intended as a joke.In the story, the woman asks if the man is a Shaivite or a Vaishnavite—two major sects in Hinduism—clarifying by referring to the pattai (horizontal tilak) and naamam (vertical tilak) each wears. She then makes the comparison: Shaivite means “lying down,” Vaishnavite means “standing up.

Chief Minister Stalin removed Ponmudi from the party position and replaced him with Rajya Sabha MP as the new deputy general secretary.

DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi took to X to call his remarks “unacceptable”.’’For whatever reasons it was spoken, such vulgar speeches are condemnable,” she wrote .

“Playback singer Chinmayi criticising the Minister said ‘’This is a joke. The joke is on us. No wonder they are all hand in glove with molester. 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 the God exists,”.

The BJP was quick to attack the DMK, accusing the party of repeatedly targeting Hinduism. BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya said, “Whether it’s DMK, Congress, TMC, or RJD, members of the I.N.D.I. Alliance seem united not by ideology, but by a shared disdain for Hindu beliefs.”