Modi, Amit Shah twisted my Sanatan Dharma remarks: Udhayanidhi

“I still stand by my comments on Sanatan Dharma,” he said, addressing a gathering at the wedding of Neyveli MLA Saba Rajendran’s son.

Describing BJP as “a poisonous snake” that “needs to be chased out” of Tamil Nadu, he called BJP’s ally in the state, AIADMK, “a garbage mound that shelters this snake” and urged people to oust both parties from Tamil Nadu in next year’s elections.

Udhayanidhi, son of Chief Minister M K Stalin, said, “There have been voices raised against Sanatan Dharma for the last hundred years in Tamil Nadu, and we will continue to speak (against it) for the next 200 years. He recalled that leaders such as B R Ambedkar, Periyar, and M Karunanidhi had all spoken against it.

The BJP had torn into Udhayanidhi and his party over his remarks on Sanatan Dharma. The state Sports Minister had said on September 2: “(A) few things cannot be opposed; they should be abolished. We can’t oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria or corona, we have to eradicate them. In the same way, we have to eradicate Sanatana (Sanatan Dharma), rather than opposing it.”

On Sunday, Udhayanidhi accused BJP of using the controversy to divert attention from pressing issues such as the ethnic clashes in Manipur that has left more than 200 people dead and the financial irregularities highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) reports.