Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday instructed the ministers to not go into history and stick to facts when speaking on controversy over the Sanatan Dharma and India vs Bharat debate, India Today reported on Wednesday. The Prime Minister said DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s controversial ‘Sanatan Dharma’ remark should be answered properly.
He also advised the ministers against commenting on the India vs Bharat dispute. “Do not go into history, but stick to the facts as per the Constitution. Also, speak about the contemporary situation of the issue,” the Prime Minister said while speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers ahead of the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
Last week, Udhayanidhi Stalin, the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, triggered a political row after he compared the Sanatan Dharma with diseases like dengue and malaria. Udhayanidhi said that Sanatan Dharma should not be opposed but destroyed. His comments sparked a backlash from several political parties. The Congress backed Udhayanidhi saying he was against the caste system. But the BJP insisted the Congress to condemn his remarks.
BJP’s IT Cell head Amit Malviya said the remark is a call for “genocide” of 80 per cent of the population that follows Sanatana Dharma. The BJP said that there was an eerie similarity between how Hitler characterised the Jews and Udhayanidhi Stalin described Sanatan Dharma. “Like Hitler, Stalin Jr also demanded, that Sanatan Dharma be eradicated…We know how Nazi hate culminated in Holocaust, killing approx 6 million European Jews and at least another 5 million Soviet prisoners of war and other victims.”
The BJP said that Stalin’s meditated comment was unadulterated “hate speech” and “a call for genocide of 80% population of Bharat”, who follow Sanatan Dharma.
On Tuesday, speculation began that the Centre may change the country’s name from India to Bharat. The buzz started after a dinner invite from the Rashtrapati Bhawan to G20 delegates was sent in the name of ‘President of Bharat’. While the government is yet to make any announcement, Congress has opposed any such possible move. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the government should not remove India as one of the country’s two official names.
He said there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”. “I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should continue to use both words rather than relinquish our claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognised around the world.”
