Udhayanidhi Stalin, Tamil Nadu Youth Welfare and Sports Minister and son of Chief Minister MK Stalin, made a speech at a meeting organised by The Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Forum in Chennai, stirring up a major controversy. The BJP and Sangh Parivar are pivoting on the speech to whip up frenzy in Tamil Nadu and all over India along the lines that ‘Hindu Dharma is in danger’. It has turned out to be a golden opportunity for them to counter the emerging threat to Hindutva government from Opposition’s INDIA grouping. MK Stalin’s DMK is notably a major constituent in the alliance. Hindutva activists say that having not yet dismissed Stalin's views, the DMK leadership and other alliance partners are in effect agreeing with his comments. The BJP claims it is also the opinion of INDIA too, because neither the Congress nor the Left parties have raised their voice against it. What Udayanidhi said was: "Sanatana Dharma that fosters inequality and injustice in the name of caste and religion is against the idea of social justice. There is no use resisting mosquito, malaria and Covid, they should be eradicated. Sanatana Dharm is like that!”
The stand of Hindutva leaders is that the open call for uprooting the faith of one billion Hindus is doubtlessly anti-Hindu. They argue that as long as INDIA grouping is not dismissing Stalin’s comments they are also anti-Hindu. The BJP, which is currently active on poll front, has not accepted dissenting voice of INDIA members including Trinamool Congress Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Kamal Nath against Stalin’s comments. Despite in the face of turmoil, Udayanidhi Stalin sticks to his comments. As they struggle to shore up an alliance, many in the Opposition including those who support Sanata Dharma are against playing into the hands of Modi-Amit Shah’s Hindutva regime. Udhayanidhi claims that he has referred to all religions and criticised caste system. There is nothing unusual about Karunanidhi’s grandson’s call to uproot Sanatana Dharma based on Varnashrama dharma as DMK is the beneficiary and successor to the Dravida Kazhakam, founded by Periyar Ramaswamy Naiker in the last century.
Also, it is alright for Karunanidhi’s DMK continuing to hold on to Dravida Kazhaka’s residual atheistic-rational legacy. They are doing so even as AIDMK, which parted ways under MGR and Jayalalitha, joined hands with upper caste leadership. The contribution of Varnashrama dharma is the hallmark of Arsha culture. That Dravidians and other backward castes were oppressed following Aryan invasion is a reality in the history will remain undeniable,regardless of its rewriting by Hindutva lobby. That is why Dr. Ambedkar and Dravidistan ideologue Ramaswamy Naiker and Dalit reformists questioned the Brahmin-Kshatriya supremacy. This was the circumstance that also made Sree Narayana Guru exhort 'Ask Not, Speak Not, Think no caste". India today is dominated by those who are committed to erasing historical facts by denying all these truths while arguing that the Aryans, caste system and the upper caste domination are the traditional foundations of Indian culture. The crucial question before 140 crore people is whether this should continue. If we want an India where equality, brotherhood and peace flourish, we had better ignore the noise happening over the protection of Sanatana Dharma.