"Unacceptable": Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla on Udhayanidhi Stalin's Sanatan rant

Sep 03, 2023

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], September 3 : As Chief Miniter MK Stalin's son's "eradicate" Sanatana Dharma" remarks triggered a political slugfest, political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla condemned the language used by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) minister.
Speaking to ANI, Poonawalla said "...This kind of language in our political discourse is absolutely unacceptable. I believe that while every way of life does require reform, those reforms must happen through legislation, political movements, dialogue, through conversation... I think that this kind of language must be condemned."
Addressing a conference on Saturday, Udhayanidhi, the minister for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Tamil Nadu government, equated 'Sanatana' (Sanatan Dharma) with "mosquitoes, dengue, malaria, fever and corona", adding that it should be stamped out like these ailments.
Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief K Annamalai on Sunday launched fresh attacks on the DMK leader over his remarks on ‘Sanatana Dharma’ and said that the eradication of a particular culture is called genocide.
“What Udhayanidhi spoke yesterday should be condemned by the 142 crore people of the country because hatred for a particular religion came out yesterday. He was reading the speech from a text, which was consciously prepared and he was reading it line by line. The eradication of a particular culture is called genocide,” Annamalai told ANI.
Railing against Sanatan Dharma in Chennai on Saturday, Udhayanidhi said, "Few things cannot be opposed, they should only 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 merely opposing Sanatana, it should be eradicated."
Earlier, K Annamalai tore into the DMK leader over his statement, accusing him of peddling a "bought-out idea from Christian missionaries".
Annamalai took to his official handle on X to post, "The only resolve that the Gopalapuram Family has is to accumulate wealth beyond the State GDP. Thiru @Udhaystalin, you, your father, or his or your idealogue have a bought-out idea from Christian missionaries & the idea of those missionaries was to cultivate ******* like you to parrot their malicious ideology."
Seeking to steer the Congress away from the statement of DMK leader, the party's Maharashtra chief Nana Patole on Sunday said the partner in the DMK-led ruling coalition in Tamil Nadu doesn't believe in hurting any religious sentiments.