Caste supremacy and discriminations based on the caste have always been contagious across the country by spreading inequality and swindling the lower caste people regardless of where they go. These societal disparities can be heard or seen anytime and anywhere in the country and mostly, people who belong to scheduled castes would become victims of these contagions. 

The strong disparity in a Tamil Nadu village has drawn huge attention after the dominant castes in the village have been treating the local panchayat president as a slave as he belongs to the scheduled caste. The caste contagion has gone to the extent that the elected president was paid and asked to dig a grave for the deceased dominant caste member. 

The incident happened on Monday -June 1st in Ariyakunjur Gram Panchayat in Tiruvannamalai district where panchayat chief Murugesan (60), who belongs to the backward Irular community, had dug the grave for the dominant caste member. The photo of him digging the grave was circulated across media following which we delved into the matter to understand the on-ground situation. 

Ariyakunjur belongs to Chengam Taluk and it's reserved constituency for scheduled people. According to our sources, this village has not more than 800 eligible voters and it houses Reddiyars, Vanniyars, Dalits, and Irular communities. Since the constituency is reserved for scheduled people, the dominant Reddiyars and Vanniyars had chosen Murugesan, the member of the scheduled tribe, to contest in local body polls that held last year. 

With the support of Vanniyars, Reddiyars, and Irular communities, Murugesan has won the election and elected as the president of the panchayat. However, the post stays under his name and the power has been taken over by the dominant castes.  Murugesan is a breadwinner of his family and despite being the president, he goes for daily wage jobs like cutting firewoods to earn daily income. 

Murugesan alleges that he has been getting treated as the laborer and he would be simply be called to sign the documents of what they show and where they ask and he wasn't allowed to make any decisions in the panchayat. According to some of the residents of the village, Murugesan went to pay last respect for a Vanniyar woman who was deceased on June 1st and when he went with a garland, some people of the dominant caste opposed him and told him that he is only fit for digging the grave after which he turned back. (According to the reports, Irular community has been digging graves in the villages for many years).

Moments later, he called to dig a grave for the deceased woman and he frustratedly went to the graveyard along with his wife and dug a grave and the picture of him standing inside the grave had shown how the elected president has been getting treated by the caste supremacy. The residents say that Selvam - the current panchayat member who belongs to Vanniyar and Sivanantham - the current vice president, who belongs to the Reddiyar community had chosen Murugesan to contest in the polls and even though Murugesan won, he can't able to act beyond Selvam and Sivanantham.

They further stated that Murugesan has been badly treated by the dominant castes. When we asked Selvam, he claimed that "I spent for Murugesan's election as he has raised me and Murugesan has always been loyal to my family and I was not in town when he dug the grave and they have created an issue as casteism by having this photo. Selvam denied that he is not treating Murugesan as a slave. However, some of the residents added that Murugesan, the elected president has addressed to the district administration over getting treated as a slave.