Expressing their support to Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge for their statement on Sanatana Dharma, members of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) said that Sanatana Dharma is not just like dengue and malaria but it is as endemic as AIDS and leprosy.
“Sanatana Dharma is not just like dengue and malaria, it is as dangerous as AIDS and leprosy. And, it should be eradicated from society,” State convenor of Karnataka State Dalit Sangharsh Samiti Arjun Bhadre told presspersons in Kalaburagi on Tuesday.
Mr. Stalin and Mr. Kharge have said that Sanatana Dharma should not only be opposed but also eradicated from society as it divides people in the name of caste and religion. Both the Ministers have spoken in alignment with the ideologies of Buddha, Basaveshwara, Periyar Ramasamy, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Sahu Maharaj who have in the past advocated equality, Mr. Bhadre said.
He pointed out that rationalist and progressive thinkers such as anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar, senior communist leader Govind Pansare, Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi and activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh who fought to eradicate superstitious beliefs from society were killed.
Mr. Bhadre said that the very term Sanatana Dharma means that it is eternal and cannot be changed and no one can question it. He said that religious places make all efforts to promote Sanatana Dharma by keeping alive their superstitious rituals and practices to lure devotees.
Opposing Sanatana Dharma is not opposing Hinduism, but it is only about bringing equality, he added.
