Stalin comes out in defense of Udhaynidhi

Chennai: After keeping silent for four days when a controversy raged across the nation over State Minister for Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin stressing on the need to eradicate ‘Sanatana Dharma,’ Chief Minister M K Stalin came out with a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, wondering if the BJP leaders could  truly protect the interests of Backward castes, Scheduled Castes and Tribal people and uplift women.

It was disheartening to hear that the Prime Minister, at a meeting of his Council of Ministers, had said that Udhayanidhi’s remarks needed a proper response without even bothering to ascertain the truth behind claims and reports that spread the lie that the Minister had spoken about a genocide of those with Sanatan thoughts, Stalin said in a statement.

Was the Prime Minister unaware of the lies that were being spread against Udhayanidhi or did he do it knowingly, Stalin asked, pointing out that the Prime Minister and his Ministers, who had not yet replied to questions on Manipur and the Rs 7.50 lakh crore irregularities highlighted in the CAG report, had convened the cabinet to discuss the Sanatan controversy.

Justifying Udhayanidhi’s remarks at the Sanatan Eradication Conference in Chennai, organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association on Saturday, Stalin said the comment was made only against the inhuman principles preached by Sanatan that discriminated against Scheduled Castes, Tribes, and Women and did not intent to offend any religion or religious belief.

‘Many leaders in our Indian subcontinent such as Thanthai Periyar, Mahatma Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Narayana Guru, Vallalaar, and Vaikuntar have spoken out against regressive Varnasrama - Manuvad - Sanatan  ideologies, which justify discrimination based on one's birth and the  oppression of women,’ he said.

Even after the launch of Chandrayaan to explore the Moon, some people continued to propagate caste discrimination, emphasizing social stratification based on Varnashrama principles and citing shastras and other ancient texts to support their sectarian claims, he said adding that a Governor had openly supported child marriage and claimed his own marriage was a child marriage.

‘If we initiate legal action against those who conducted child marriages, he defends them and lays stumbling blocks for the investigation. Some individuals still denigrate women on spiritual platforms, arguing that women should not work, widowed women should not remarry, and there are no rituals or officiating chants for remarriage. They use the term "Sanatan" to perpetuate the oppression of women, who make up more than half of humankind,’ he said.

While Udhayanidhi spoke out only against such oppressive ideologies and called to eradicate the practices based on those ideologies, pro-BJP forces, unable to tolerate his stance against oppressive principles, had spread a false narrative accusing him of calling for a genocide, when he had never used the word either in English or in Tamil,’ he said.

The DMK that worked to uplift the Backward and Most Backward Castes,the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, minorities, women, and poor, driven by its ‘one clan, one god’ and ‘happiness of the poor’ objectives, was the one that gave property rights to women, which was denied by Sanatan principles, he said.