INDIA alliance wants to destroy Sanatana Dharma, says PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the Opposition alliance INDIA wants to destroy Sanatana Dharma.

“Everyone should be alert, by removing Sanatana, these people want to push us back thousands of years,” Modi said, at a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s city of Bina. The state will go to polls this year.

The prime minister’s comments come in response to a statement by Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin that Sanatana Dharma – a term some people use as a synonym for Hinduism – was akin to dengue and malaria and should be “eradicated”.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s social media cell head Amit Malviya claimed that Stalin’s statement was equivalent to “a call for genocide”. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader had clarified later that he did not ask for genocide of Hindus as claimed by BJP leaders.

On Thursday, Modi also said that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi considered Sanatana Dharma to be essential to his life and was inspired by Hindu deity Ram. He asserted that religious teacher Vivekanand and independence activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak were also inspired by Hinduism.

“They [INDIA alliance leaders] held a meeting in Mumbai recently, and I think they decided the politics and strategy of how to run the arrogant alliance there,” Modi said. “They have also decided...

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