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Outrage After Tamil Nadu Forest Minister Gets Tribal Boys To Remove His Footwear

Dindigul C Sreenivasan asked two minor boys, who were tribal residents, to remove his slippers so he could enter a shrine.
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Forest Minister Dindigul C Sreenivasan has children from the tribal community remove his slippers.
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Forest Minister Dindigul C Sreenivasan has children from the tribal community remove his slippers.

Tamil Nadu Forest Minister Dindigul C Sreenivasan has kicked up a storm after he was seen having children of a tribal community remove his footwear on Thursday as he prepared to enter a temple in Mudumalai.

Sivapriyan ETB, a special correspondent for the Deccan Herald, shared a video of the incident on Twitter.

Sreenivasan was at the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve to inaugurate a rejuvenation camp for captive elephants.

The minister asked two minor boys, who were tribal residents, to remove his slippers so he could enter the shrine, The Hindu reported. Officials told the daily the two boys were children of mahouts at the camp.

Photographers covering the event were asked to stop taking pictures while Conoor MLA A Ramu tried to block their view of the incident, the report said.

A member of entourage asked the boys to pick up the minister’s footwear and keep it at the shrine’s entrance.

People on Twitter have called out the minister’s casteist behaviour:

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.