Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 4: On the face of the continued onslaught by the BJP on the INDIA block over the DMK minister’s attack on the “Sanatana Dharma,” the Congress looked a divided house while some other alliance members rushed in to reduce the impact on the Hindu sentiments.
After the union home minister Amit Shah lambasted the INDIA block on Sunday on the Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, who is also the son of the chief minister MK Stalin, calling for “eradication of disease-like “Sanatana Dharma,” the defence minister Rajnath Singh latched on to the same issue in sending off the third “Parivartan Yatra” of the BJP in the poll-bound Rajasthan on Monday and pulled in the Congress leadership and the Gandhis for being “silent” on the “attack on the Hindus” from its alliance partner, the DMK.
Even as police cases were filed against Udhayanidhi Stalin in different parts of the country including one case in Delhi for “insulting” the Hindus, Rajnath Singh demanded the INDIA members to apologise “or country won’t forgive them.”
The Congress seemed to be wavering between support for the embattled Tamil Nadu politician and rejection of his comment. The senior party leader and organisational secretary KC Venugopal underlined the need to respect all religions, stating that every political outfit “has the freedom to (express) their views” and that the Congress “respects everybody’s beliefs…” “Our view is clear… ‘Sarva Dharma Samabhava’ is the Congress ideology,” he said.
On the other side was the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, another poll-bound state who said remarks by Stalin might his “personal views” and he did not agree with it. “These may be his personal views… I am not in agreement with Stalin,” he said as he is preparing to face the electorate later this year.
Shiv Sena UBT leader Priyanka Chaturvedi also offered support. She posted on X defending “sanatan dharma (as) the country’s bedrock… linked… to inclusiveness of all faiths and identities.” “Sanatan Dharm stands for eternal truth – way to live life, conscience & being. Sanatanis have long withstood attacks by invaders to end their identity yet have not just survived but thrived. Country’s bedrock, linked to sanatan dharm, has been of inclusiveness of all faiths and identities,” she said.
“Anyone making derogatory comments it is ignorant of what it stands for.” Ms Chaturvedi also hit out at the BJP over “fake concern” that “exposes their sick hypocrisy” and pointed to violence during protests in BJP and Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena-ruled Maharashtra.
But even as the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge despite provocations kept away from the controversy, the BJP kept playing some of his old videos where Kharge too had slammed the “Sanatana Dharma.” And the most forceful comment came from his son Priyank Kharge, who is also a minister in the Congress government in Karnataka. Siding with his Tamil Nadu colleague Priyank said any religion that did not ensure equality for all and divides the society on caste and creed basis was “as good as disease…”
“Any religion that does not promote equality, or does not ensure you have dignity of being human, is not religion, according to me. Any religion that does not give equal rights… is as good as disease…” he said.
The defence of Stalin whose party is a key member of the INDIA alliance that held its third meet Mumbai last week – comes as the BJP and several Hindu religious groups ramp up their attack on the DMK leader. Other members of the alliance, including the Aam Aadmi Party and the Trinamool, have yet to speak on this subject, while Mr Stalin’s party colleagues, and smaller Tamil Nadu parties, have been strident in their defence.
“We want to do away with ‘sanatan dharma‘ which perpetuates caste rigidity. They want this caste hierarchy to continue. DMK is a progressive party which wants to do away with these regressive attitudes,” party leader Saravanan Annadurai said.
Besides the union ministers, the BJP president JP Nadda wanted to know if “Udhayanidhi’s statement (is) part of the INDIA alliance’s strategy”. “Are you going to use this anti-Hindu strategy in elections…” he asked in Madhya Pradesh. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai slammed Stalin as “Hitler” and INDIA as a “group of parties who are joining hands to come to power at the cost of social fabric of country.” Udhayanidhi Hitler is the right word for him,” he said.
Addressing a writers’ conference in Chennai last week, Udhayanidhi Stalin had said the idea of “Sanatana Dharma was against the idea of social justice and must be eradicated.” Defending his stand on the issue, Stalin later accused the BJP of “twisting” his statement and spreading incorrect information pointing out that he never called for a “genocide” of those following Sanatana Dharma and that he was ready to face any cases filed against him.
The Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje demanded that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin should immediately sack his son Udhayanidhi over his allegation that Sanatan Dharma was against social justice and it should be eradicated. Addressing reporters, she said: “Our country is connected to religion and temples. He (Udhayanidhi) holds a responsible position and his father is Chief Minister… What is he speaking? What does he think?”
While Union Minister Anurag Thakur accused the opposition INDIA alliance of stooping to any level to win in politics, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asked the Congress if the INDIA bloc had met in Mumbai to finalise its agenda against Sanatan Dharma and how to finish it off across the country. “Is this your ‘mohabbat ki dukan‘(shop to spread love),” he asked, in a dig at Congress leaders.