Following intense criticism from the BJP over his “eradication of Sanatan Dharma” remarks, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Thursday accused the saffron party of “twisting” his statements and presented it as “inciting genocide”.
He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are using the Sanatan Dharma ‘ploy’ to divert attention from the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur and corruption.
“For the last 9 years, all your (BJP) promises are empty promises. What have you exactly done for our welfare is a question currently being raised in unison by the entire country against an unarmed, fascist BJP government. It is in this background that the BJP leaders have twisted my speech at the TNPWAA conference as ‘inciting genocide’. They consider it a weapon to protect themselves,” he said.
“What is surprising is that those like Union Minister Amit Shah and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states were demanding action against him based on “fake news,” Udhayanidhi said.
He also said, “In all fairness, I should be the one filing criminal cases and other court cases against them for spreading slander while holding respectable positions. But I am aware that this is their mode of survival. They don’t know how else to survive, so I decided not to do that.”
An FIR was registered Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur against DMK leader Udhayanidhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge for allegedly outraging religious feelings. While Stalin was booked for his “Sanatan Dharma eradication” remark, Kharge for backing the DMK leader.
The two were booked under sections 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups) of the IPC at Civil Lines Police Station in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur on Tuesday.
Further Udhayanidhi, quoting late CN Annadurai, the founder of DMK, said, “I would like to quote Anna’s comment on religions which remains relevant even today. If a religion leads people towards equality and teaches them fraternity, then I too am a spiritualist. If a religion divides people in the name of castes, if it teaches them untouchability and slavery, I would be the first person to oppose religion.”
He added that DMK respects all religions that teach all lives are born equal.
“But without an iota of understanding about any of these, Thiru Modi and Co are solely dependent on such slanders to face the Parliamentary elections. On the one hand, I can only feel sorry for them. For the last 9 years, Modi has been doing nothing. Occasionally he demonetises money, builds wall to hide huts, builds new Parliamentary building, erects a Sengol (scepter) there, plays around by changing the name of the country, standing at border and making the white flag work,” he lashed out.
“Thiru Modi and co are using the Sanatana ploy to divert the attention from the facts including the killing of more than 250 people in the riots incited in Manipur and the Rs 7.5 lakh crore corruption,” he charged.
Udhayanidhi said that he will face the cases filed against him with the guidance of Chief Minister and his father MK Stalin and the party’s high command.
On Saturday, speaking at an event of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association in Chennai, Udhayanidhi, the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Tamil Nadu government had said, “Few things cannot be opposed, they should be abolished. We can’t oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria or corona, we have to eradicate them. In the same way, we have to eradicate Sanatana (Sanatan Dharma), rather than opposing it.”