A Patna court has summoned a Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin to appear in person regarding his controversial remarks on Sanatana Dharma last year.
On January 15, MP-MLA court of Patna directed DMK Youth Wing Secretary and Tamil Nadu Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin to make an appearance in person regarding his controversial remarks on Sanatana Dharma in September 2023. Lawyer Dr Kausalendra Narayan had filed a case in the CJM Court, Patna, against Udhayanidhi Stalin when he made the remarks. The case was then transferred to the MP-MLA court.
On December 6, the Patna court issued Udhayanidhi a summon and post a new hearing on Monday, another summon has been issued.
Udhayanidhi had compared Sanatana Dharma to ‘dengue’ and ‘malaria’ and stated it needed to be ‘eradicated’. This created a controversy and a case was filed against him by Hindu Munani. The DMK leader has stated that he hadn’t said anything wrong and was ready to face legal consequences regarding his statement.
In November 2023, Udhayanidhi further stated, “I haven’t said anything wrong. What I said was right and I’ll face it legally. I will not change my statement. I have spoken my ideology. I’ve not spoken more than what Ambedkar, Periyar or Thirumavalavan had said. I can be an MLA, a Minister or a Youth Wing Secretary and tomorrow I maybe not. But being a human is more important. We’ve been speaking about Sanatana for several years while NEET is a six-year-old issue. It (Sanatana) is a several hundred years old issue, we shall oppose it forever.”
The BJP had slammed Udhayanidhi’s remarks, and wrote on its official social media handle on X (formerly twitter), “Uday Stalin’s meditated comment is unadulterated hate speech and a call for genocide of 80 percent population of Bharat, who follow Sanatan Dharma. Congress and I.N.D.I.A alliance support for Stalin’s bile is most disconcerting.”
Meanwhile, the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and Aam Aadmi Party, who are a part of the INDIA bloc, distanced themselves from the issue and did not comment.