PM says Oppn wants to destroy sanatana

The Opposition plans to destroy sanatana dharma and attack the centuries-old tradition of the country that inspired Mahatma Gandhi to start a movement opposing untouchability, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, in a scathing attack on the INDIA bloc just months ahead of crucial heartland assembly polls

- Shruti Tomar

In his first public response to controversial criticism of sanatana dharma by Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin two weeks ago, Modi urged the people to unite and defeat forces that want to destroy traditions and push the country into a thousand-year-cycle of slavery.

“The ghamandia (arrogant) alliance met in Mumbai recently. They have neither any policies, nor issues, nor a leader. They have a hidden agenda of attacking sanatana dharma which they want to destroy,” Modi said at an event in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, referring to the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

“I think at this meeting they have made a policy and strategy…Their intention is to destroy the ideas, values and traditions that have united India for thousands of years,” he added.

The controversy began on September 3, when Udhayanidhi Stalin, the son of Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, compared sanatana dharma with diseases such as dengue and malaria and called for its eradication while addressing a conference of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers in Chennai. The BJP interpreted his remarks as a call for “genocide” of Hindus even as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam rejected such allegations, saying Udhayanidhi was speaking against caste practices that were rooted in centuries-old orthodoxy. First information reports (FIRs) were registered against Udhayanidhi and Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge, who came out in his defence, in Rampur, and some quarters even issued threats of physical violence.

During his 40-minute speech, Modi refused to refer to the 28-party opposition grouping that has come together to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 polls as INDIA, referring to it as the INDI alliance and ghamandia, a reference to the BJP’s political charge that opposition parties were arrogant and dynastic.