E-Paper
‘Sanatana’ remark furore: FIRs filed against DMK, BJP leaders
Multiple cases have been registered in various parts of the country in connection with Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s controversial remark on Sanatana Dharma and reactions against it.
Multiple cases have been registered in various parts of the country in connection with Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s controversial remark on Sanatana Dharma and reactions against it.
An FIR has been registered against Udhayanidi and Priyank Kharge — Karnataka minister and Congress leader who backed the Tamil Nadu minister’s remark — at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, while cases were also registered against BJP IT department in-charge Amit Malviya for distorting the DMK leader’s remark and against an Ayodhya-based seer for putting a bounty on Udhayanidhi.
On September 2, Udhayanidhi, son of Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, alleged that Sanatana Dharma is “against social justice and equality” and it should hence be “eradicated”, triggering nationwide uproar.
Days later, Malviya posted on X (formerly twitter) that the DMK leader had called for “genocide” of 80% population who follow Sanatana Dharma. An FIR has been registered against him at Tiruchirappalli for deliberately misrepresenting Udhayanidhi’s remark to “cause disharmony” and “create enmity among different sections of people” under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said on Wednesday.
In Rampur, an FIR has been registered at the Civil Lines police station against Udhayanidhi and Priyank Kharge for allegedly hurting religious sentiments based on a complaint by an advocate, Ram Singh Lodhi, police said on Wednesday.
Both leaders have been booked under sections 295A (insults to the religious beliefs of a class) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC. “A case has been registered against Udhayanidhi for his statement calling for eradication of Sanatana Dharma and against Kharge for supporting the statement,” a senior police officer said, requesting anonymity.
In his complaint, Lodhi has alleged: “Udhayanidhi compared Sanatana Dharma with diseases like dengue and malaria, and said it should be eradicated... This remark hurt the religious feelings of Sanatanis like me and should be seen as an act of creating hatred among people.”
In Madurai, police have registered a case against Paramhans Acharya, a seer from Ayodhya, for allegedly issuing death threat by putting bounty on Udhayanidhi over his remark. The cyber crime police have registered a case under various IPC sections, including 153 (provocation to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different sections of people) and 506 (criminal intimidation) based on a complaint by J Devasenan, a DMK functionary.
The also named an Uttar Pradesh-based journalist Piyush Rai for recording and posting on social media the seer’s video which, Devasenan alleged has “caused panic and fear among the people of Tamil Nadu and may lead to communal riots and disturb public peace.”
In the purported video, released on Tuesday, the seer is heard saying: “...if required, I myself will behead MK Stalin’s son, and I will also increase the bounty of ₹10 crore if that is not enough for beheading him.”
HT could not independently verify the veracity of the video.
