On Friday, March 4, Dilip Mandal, a columnist at The Print and a member of the Editors Guild executive committee hailed the leadership of MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu for inducting the first-ever Dalit woman for the post of Mayor in the capital city of Chennai. The self-proclaimed ‘Dalit Thinker’, heaped praises for the DMK government for accomplishing something that other states, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata, had failed to do in the past.
“The Chennai/Madras Corporation was established in 1688. It took 334 years for a Dalit woman to become the Mayor of Chennai. R Priya, 28, DMK, smashed the barriers of gender & caste. This happened in the regime of @mkstalin. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangaluru… are you listening?” Tweeted Dilip Mandal, the casteist professor, who was accused of spreading the caste divide and discrimination by the students of Makhanlal University not so long ago.
The Chennai/Madras Corporation was established in 1688. It took 334 years for a Dalit woman to become the Mayor of Chennai. R Priya, 28, DMK, smashed the barriers of gender & caste. This happened in the regime of @mkstalin
— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) March 4, 2022
Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangaluru… are you listening? pic.twitter.com/bfxOz6wk8h
Mandal’s Tweet came in response to reports that the DMK’s R Priya, the city’s youngest and first-ever Dalit woman mayor, took the oath of office in Chennai on Friday. Mayor was sworn into the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) for the first time after a hiatus of 11 years.
Tamil Nadu | Greater Chennai Corporation gets its youngest and first-ever Dalit woman mayor, as DMK’s R Priya takes the oath of office in Chennai. The 29-year-old is Chennai’s third woman mayor. pic.twitter.com/erfAt365h0
— ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2022
Dilip Mandal used this opportunity, firstly, to hail MK Stalin for ushering in a welcome shift after 334 years. He said that this was the first time a Dalit woman has been elected Mayor of Chennai since the establishment of the Chennai/Madras Corporation in 1688. He couldn’t stop applauding the DMK government for “breaking down gender and caste barriers.”
He also implied that MK Stalin’s endeavour was unique as no other states, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Delhi, had ever had a Dalit woman as mayor.
Netizens slam Mandal for spreading fake news and lies on social media
No sooner did Dilip Mandal put out his Tweet, Netizens descended on his timeline to give him a class in history and call out his blatant lie. Some watchful netizens who were acquainted with the correct version of history, advised the columnist to get his facts straight and refrain from indulging in such mental luxuries.
“This moron doesn’t have basic knowledge, tweets like a fool and this nincompoop is a professor…” said one of the social media users who were angry at Mandal for peddling falsehoods.
This moron doesn’t have basic knowledge tweets like a fool and this nincompoop is professor, dei go read about Blore, Maha mayors…and also about Chennai mayor history https://t.co/SlZvo3gB0f
— AK (@kumar_ak) March 4, 2022
Prasanna Viswanathan of Swarajya called Mandal’s Tweet a part of his “daily quota of fake news and lies”. He apprised the columnist with ThePrint that “Bengaluru got a Dalit woman mayor (incidentally from BJP) a good 11 years ago.”
Mandal’s daily quota of fake news and lies. Bengaluru city got a Dalit woman mayor (incidentally from BJP) a good 11 years ago.https://t.co/ZZdWeGqDUW https://t.co/823wesM3wP
— Prasanna Viswanathan (@prasannavishy) March 4, 2022
As rightly, pointed out by Prasanna Viswanathan, Bengaluru had got its first Dali woman mayor, Sharadamma, in the year 2011. She was the 5th woman mayor and the city’s 45th mayor.
Other social media users reminded Dilip Mandal that the Mayorship had previously been solely reserved for Scheduled Caste members until the DMK opened it up to all in 1969.
The Mayorship was reserved for SC, until it was made open to all by the DMK in 1969. Sit yourself down, pick up some books and get yourself and education. https://t.co/5KZ8SENR2M
— Suren (@zeneraalstuff) March 4, 2022
Idiot Bengaluru already had several Dalit women as Mayor. In 1969 DMK made mayor under general category thereby depriving Dalits to be elected as a Mayor.#idiot https://t.co/jWeP0BhELt
— Dr Giridhara Upadhyaya 🇮🇳 (@rashtradevobava) March 4, 2022
Probably, Dilip Mandal should know that Mumbai too, contrary to his perception, got its first Dalit woman mayor in the year 2014. In September 2014, Shiv Sena’s Snehal Ambekar (Parel) was elected as the first Dalit woman mayor of the city. She was also the 75th mayor of Mumbai.
Who is Dilip Mandal
Dilip Mandal is a professor and a columnist with Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Editors Guild of India, which had recently hogged the limelight after it condemned the registration of FIRs against alleged journalists for sharing fake news during the Republic Day violence in Delhi. Shockingly, in an effort to whitewash the crimes of alleged ‘journalists’, the Editors’ Guild normalised the menace of fake news by claiming that the act of the six journalists was ‘in line with established norms of journalistic practice’.
OpIndia has extensively, reported about Dilip Mandal’s misadventures in the past. He is the same professor who had accused Twitter of being casteist because he was not given the verified blue tick. In the year 2019, he had called then Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari a casteist bigot for allegedly being unfair to Dalits and not verifying his own Twitter handle. But after his account was verified by Twitter, he had demanded to remove it, saying that everyone should get an ‘equal status’ on Twitter.
In the same year, Dilip Mandal was accused of spreading the caste divide and discrimination by the students of Makhanlal University. The students had alleged that the two journalists, one of them being Dilip Mandal, inquire about the castes of students studying in the university on social media and during class hours and then misbehave and harass those students belonging to the upper castes.
