Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Thursday that it was ‘unfair’ for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to comment on the statement of Udhayanidhi Stalin without properly ascertaining facts.
In a statement, the Chief Minister said that Udhayanidhi Stalin had made some remarks about the “inhuman practices in Sanatan Dharma” which was earlier touched upon by great social reformers of the Indian subcontinent like Thanthai Periyar, Mahatma Gandhi, Sree Narayana Guru, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Vallalar and Vaikuntar.
He said that these social reformers had spoken against regressive Varnasrama – Manuvad – Sanatan ideologies which justify discrimination based on one’s birth and oppression of women.
The Chief Minister in his statement said that even as the country was launching Chandrayaan to moon, some people were practicing caste discrimination and using the term ‘Sanatan’ to perpetuate the oppression of women who make up more than half of humankind.
He said that Udhayanidhi Stalin had spoken about only such oppressive ideologies and called to eradicate the practices based on these ideologies.
The Chief Minister in the statement said that the pro-BJP forces were unable to tolerate the stance taken by Udhayanidhi Stalin and have spread a false narrative that he called for the genocide of people with Sanatan thoughts.
He said that the Prime Minister has all the resources to verify Udhayanidhi’s statement and still it was reported in the national media that he had in the meeting of council of ministers mentioned that a proper response was required to Udhayanidhi.
Stalin charged that the Prime Minister was trying to divert the attention from his government’s failures by invoking Sanatan Dharma.
The Chief Minister also said that the Prime Minister seems to have been rattled by the new opposition INDIA bloc.
He also charged that the BJP seems to be genuinely concerned about the practices in Sanatan but rather were desperate to create divisions within the opposition.
CM Stalin also said that DMK was a political party which believed in the backward, most backward, Scheduled Caste and tribes, minorities and women.
He also said that Tamil Nadu was the first state that provided equal rights to women and added that DMK had given to women what was denied by Sanatan Dharma.
