New Delhi, Sep 12: The BJP on Tuesday accused the INDIA bloc of having a hidden agenda to target Sanatan Dharma for its vote bank politics as party president J P Nadda led a fresh charge and claimed that attacking the ancient faith is part of a well thought-out strategy of the Congress and its leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The BJP seized on DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Minister K Ponmudy’s remarks that the INDIA bloc was forged as an “opposition to Sanatan ideology” to hit out at the opposition.
“The Congress and the INDI Alliance should make their view clear and tell if the Constitution gives the right to make objectionable comments against any religion? Do INDI Alliance members not know the constitutional provisions,” Nadda said on X.
The alliance, the Congress and Sonia and Rahul Gandhi should answer as to why “hate against Sanatan Dharma is being sold in the name of mohabbat ki dukan,” he said. This mega mall of hate is only for power; divide and rule, he alleged.
Addressing a press conference, BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the country’s culture and heritage are being insulted daily while senior leaders like Sonia Gandhi are silent.
Noting that Bihar minister and RJD leader Chandra Shekhar and Samajwadi Party’s Swami Prasad Maura have repeatedly criticised Hindu holy books like Ramcharitmanas, Prasad said the leadership of these parties have maintained silence.
Such silence is an indication of approval, he said, making it clear that the BJP will go to people on the issue after the agenda has been set by the opposition. “We will talk of vikas (development) as well as virasat,” he said. India will not tolerate this insult to Sanatan, he said. The more Sonia Gandhi maintains silence over the matter the more it will be clear that opposing Sanatan Dharma is part of the INDIA bloc’s common minimum programme, he alleged.
Accusing almost every party of the INDIA bloc of insulting Sanatan Dharma, Prasad said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his son had also attacked it.
“The ‘ghamandia’ alliance should know that neither could Muslim invaders erase Sanatan despite ruling India for hundreds of years not could the British could finish it off,” he said.
“The BJP will urge this alliance to come out with a categorical resolution that we completely disassociate ourselves (from DMK’s criticism) and this is not our agenda,” he said.
With the DMK linking Sanatan Dharma with the practice of caste discrimination among Hindus to justify its criticism, the BJP leader noted that temples dedicated to revered people from backward castes like Shabir, Kewat and saint Ravidas have been built. The Sanatan Dharma believes that one irrespective of his caste and community background can attain God with their devotion, he claimed.
The Congress has maintained that it believes in respecting every faith.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Tuesday lashed out at DMK parliamentarian A Raja for his purported remark that the “Hindu religion is a menace”. Annamalai accused the ruling DMK of being the principal reason for creating caste divide and hatred among the people in the state. Annamalai said the DMK MP and former union minister A Raja had the “audacity” to blame ‘Sanatana Dharma’ for the mess the DMK had made. (PTI)
