Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pralhad Joshi, on Friday questioned the silence of the Opposition bloc INDIA over former DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s rant against Sanatan Dharma.
Addressing a seminar in Chennai earlier, the minister for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Tamil Nadu government, equated Sanatan Dharma with “mosquitoes, dengue, malaria, fever and corona” and called for it to be eradicated and not merely opposed.
Speaking to ANI on Friday, Joshi questioned why people should vote for the ruling Congress in Rajasthan, saying, “The son (Priyank Kharge) of the Congress’s national president (Mallikarju Kharge) equated Sanatan Dharma with a disease. I want to ask the Congress and (Rajasthan Chief Minister) Ashok Gehlot as to what they have to say on this.”
He added that the Congress was yet to outrightly condemn these statements.
While Priyank Kharge is a sitting minister in the Karnataka government, Udhayanidhi’s party is a constituent of the INDIA bloc along with the Congress.
“Only a few people are calling it INDIA. It ought to be called the INDI alliance. Since the word alliance is repeated in the name, it is INDI alliance. It is actually a ghamandi (arrogant) alliance,” the BJP leader, who is the party’s poll in-charge in Rajasthan, said.
Invoking the G20 summit to take a swipe at the Opposition, Joshi said while the whole world was commending the country for its conduct of the global event, which was themed on ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, the INDIA leaders were spreading “hate” through such statements.
“Neither (Congress MP) Rahul Gandhi nor Ashok Gehlot has condemned the statements by Udhayanidhi Stalin and Priyank Kharge. The Opposition has made it a habit to abuse Sanatan Dharma and the idea behind ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’,” Joshi added.
Claiming that the Congress indulged in corruption in Rajasthan and failed to prevent rising atrocities on women, as well as members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes across the state, the Union minister called on the people to decide if it should vote it back.