Sanatana dharma row: FIRs against journalist Piyush Rai, BJP leader Amit Malviya in Tamil Nadu

The Tamil Nadu Police on Wednesday filed first information reports against journalist Piyush Rai, Bharatiya Janata Party’s social media cell head Amit Malviya and an Ayodhya-based seer in connection with the controversy over state minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks on sanatana dharma, the Deccan Herald reported.

At a press conference in Chennai on September 2, the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had said that sanatana dharma – a term often associated with Hinduism – was akin to dengue and malaria and should be “eradicated”.

On Wednesday, the police in Madurai registered a case against Ayodhya’s Tapasvi Chhawani Temple’s seer Ramchandra Das Paramhans Acharya for announcing a Rs 10 crore bounty on the head of the sports minister.

The police also named Rai, an Uttar Pradesh-based journalist with The Quint news website, in the FIR for posting a video of the seer’s comments. A complaint by J Devasenan, the convener of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Madurai unit legal wing, alleged that the video caused fear among the people of Tamil Nadu and may lead to communal riots.

Acharya and Rai have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 153 (provocation to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different sections of people), 504 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 505(1)(b) (statements conducing to public mischief) and 506(2)...

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