At the peak of the protests, the state was paralysed for a week when lakhs of trees were felled, highways blocked and damaged and more than 1400 houses of the Dalit community burned down.

In June 2019 he stoked a controversy, saying that he would kill journalists who question him about hundreds of trees cut down by his party workers during his arrest by the J Jayalalithaa government.

In an event in 2010, he said, "Dalit men sporting jeans, t-shirts and fancy glasses lure our women into marriages that don't work."

Following his arrest, PMK organised a statewide violent protest that resulted in the injury of several people and losses to public property.

[18][19] Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) accused PMK of murdering two Dalit youths in Arrakonam in April 2021.