Accusing the BJP leaders of twisting his recent speech that included remarks on Sanatana Dharma, made at a Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artistes Association (TNPWAA) conference, DMK youth wing leader and Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Udhayanidhi Stalin, on Thursday, September 7, 2023 said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet colleagues were using the political row that has since erupted over his remarks, as a weapon to protect themselves.
To get today’s top stories from the State in your inbox, subscribe to our Tamil Nadu Today newsletter
“They consider this row a weapon to protect themselves with. What is surprising is that Union Ministers including Amit Shah and Chief Minister of States ruled by the BJP are also demanding action against me based on fake news,” the Minister said, in a statement issued on Thursday.
“Afraid of having to face questions about [violence-hit] Manipur in India, the PM is globe- trotting along with his friend [industrialist Gautam] Adani. The fact is, the ignorance of the people is the capital of their theatrical politics,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Udhayanidhi also alleged that PM Modi and his Ministers were using the row to divert the attention from facts such as the the killing of more than 250 people in the riots in Manipur and the 7.5 lakh crore financial irregularities pointed out by the CAG in its report.
He said in all fairness, he should be the one filing criminal cases and other court cases against the various BJP leader for having spreading slander. “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 [file police cases],” he added.
Mr Udhayanidhi said he was one of the political heirs of Perarignar Anna [C.N. Annadurai], the founder of the DMK and everyone knows that “we are not the enemies of any religion.”
Recalling Anna’s quotes that, “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 the religion,” he said. “Without an iota of understanding about any of these philosophies, Mr. Modi and his Ministers are solely dependent on falsehoods in order to face the Parliamentary elections.”
Mr. Udhayanidhi also said he wondered whether there had been any progressive scheme from the Union government over the past nine years like the Pudhumai Penn scheme that had improved the lives of the girl students in T.N., or the T.N. Chief Minister’s breakfast scheme for government school students or T.N.’s women’s basic income scheme. He alleged that the BJP government had made only empty promises in the past nine years. “Have they built the AIIMS in Madurai? Did they take forward any knowledge movement like the Kalaignar centenary library?” he asked.
As regards the announcement made by a seer in Uttar Pradesh who had put a price of ₹10 crore on his head, Mr. Udhayanidhi wanted to know how someone who claimed to have renounced everything, could have ₹10 crore. He also urged his party comrades to avoid filing cases against the seer, as they had a lot of party work to do.
“I will face the cases filed against me legally with the guidance of our party president and on the advice of our party high command,” he stated, and also thanked his “TNPWAA comrades” for organising the conference and making Sanatana Dharma a talking point, at the national level.
