Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday hit out at the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress over Tamil Nadu sports minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s controversial remarks on Sanatan Dharma and accused them of insulting India’s culture and history for their vote bank and appeasement politics.
“Since the past two days, some DMK and Congress leaders are insulting Sanatan Dharma… they are saying Sanatan Dharma should be erased… for their vote bank and appeasement politics, they are talking of ending Sanatan Dharma and insulting the culture and history of our country,” Shah said, addressing a public meeting at Beneshwar Dham in poll-bound Rajasthan, where he flagged off the BJP’s second Parivartan Sankalp yatra.
On Saturday, addressing a meeting of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association in Chennai, Udhayanidhi, the son of Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, called for the eradication of “Sanatana Dharma” to establish social justice and equality.
“Few things cannot be opposed; they should only be abolished. We can’t oppose dengue, mosquitoes, or corona (virus), we have to eradicate them. In the same way, we have to eradicate ‘Sanatana’ (Sanatan Dharma). Rather than merely opposing ‘Sanatana’, it should be eradicated,” he said in Tamil.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at him and the INDIA bloc, calling his statement a call for “genocide” and urged the Supreme Court to take ognizance of the matter. However, Udhayanidhi maintained that he stands “firmly by every word” he has spoken.
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Amit Shah said this was not the first time that the opposition has done this and recounted former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s statement who had said the first right on the country’s resources is of the minorities.
Shah also cited Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s statement that if Modi comes to power, Sanatan Dharma will rule. “Sanatan Dharma is in people’s hearts. No one can erase it… And Modi has said that the country will run by the Constitution,” said Shah.
Shah said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had remarked that Hindu organisations are as dangerous as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (terrorist organisation) and a Congress home minister had spoken about “Hindu terror”.
“This is the vote bank and appeasement politics of the Ghamandiya alliance, which can stoop to any level,” he said.
“In 20 years, prime minister Narendra Modi has provided lots of development schemes to the country, which have benefitted 60 crore poor. And what has Congress done? In 20 years, it has launched Rahul Gandhi 20 times and all 20 times, the launching has failed,” said Shah.
He said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ruled for 10 years and its rule was marked by corruption and scams, which amounted to ₹12 lakh crore. Shah added that the more the opposition alliance spoke, the less number of seats they would win in the elections. “In 2014, their seats were reduced. In 2019, their numbers were reduced more and in 2024, they are talking about Sanatan Dharma, they will be reduced to such few seats that it will be difficult to find them with binoculars,” he said.
Shah also hit out at Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, saying he followed a policy of appeasement and created an atmosphere of insecurity in Rajasthan. Shah said Gehlot had put curbs on Hindu festivals and scores of communal clashes had taken place in Rajasthan. He said the Congress government failed to provide security to women and as a result, Rajasthan accounted for 22 percent of the total rape cases in India.
Taking a dig at Gehlot, Shah said the chief minister has a problem with red clothes these days, referring to the “red diary” allegation against him.
“Whenever he sees red clothes, he is reminded of a red diary… what is in the red diary? It has an account of the corruption amounting to crore of rupees done by Ashok Gehlot… We didn’t give the red diary, it was your own minister who gave the red diary… it has details of the ₹66,000 crore scam in the mining department, ₹1,000 crore corruption in grant of mining leases, corruption amounting to ₹2,000 crore in Udai Sagar lake development and crores of rupees corruption in food given to the poor,” said Shah.
“A government that has done so much corruption. The only alternative is to throw out the Gehlot government and bring the BJP to power,” he said.
Taking a jibe at Gehlot, Shah said, “Gehlot is a magician… he can make things disappear… he has made electricity disappear in the entire state, health services have disappeared, employment for youth has disappeared and women’s security has disappeared.”
Shah asked Gehlot to give an account of the work he had done in his five-year tenure and said the Congress under its 10-year rule at the Centre had given Rajasthan only ₹1.6 lakh crore while the Modi government in its nine-year rule, has provided ₹8.71 lakh crore to the state.
Several BJP leaders including state in-charge Arun Singh, state BJP chief CP Joshi, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat were present at the event.
Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi dismissed Shah’s statements. He said the governance model of the Rajasthan government is the best in the country and all religions are given respect in the state.
“No other government in Rajasthan or any other state has given the kind of grants the Congress government has given to gaushalas and temples,” he said. He added that the Rajasthan government works for the people while Amit Shah and his party work to win elections. “The BJP is scared of the welfare schemes of the Rajasthan government, so their leaders are visiting the state again and again. But despite that, they are not able to win over the people or even forge unity in their own party,” said Chaturvedi.
