Party says it believes in ‘sarvadharma sambhav’

Party says it believes in ‘sarvadharma sambhav’

Party says it believes in ‘sarvadharma sambhav’

Amid a raging controversy over the remarks of DMK leaders Udhayanidhi Stalin and A. Raja on Sanatan Dharma, the Congress on Thursday made it clear that the party did not agree with such remarks. The grand old party also asserted that it believed in "sarvadharma sambhav" (equal respect to all religions).

Both the Congress and the DMK are members of the INDIA bloc, formed to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"If you know the history of the Indian National Congress you would know that we have always maintained (this stand) and you will find the same principles in the Constituent Assembly debates and the Constitution of India. There can never be a rethink on the Constitution as far as the Congress is concerned," said Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera.

He said nobody can treat any particular faith as less than another faith and added that his party has always believed in 'sarvadharma sambhav' wherein every religion, every faith has its space. 

Asked about why the Congress has not yet condemned the DMK leaders’ remarks, Khare said:  "I just said we do not agree with such comments."

Udhayanidhi, Tamil Nadu youth welfare minister and son of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, stirred up a political storm on Saturday when he allegedly likened ‘Sanatan Dharma’ to coronavirus, malaria and dengue and said such things should not be opposed but eradicated. He was speaking at a meeting of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association in Chennai.

"Few things cannot be opposed, that should be abolished only. We can't oppose Dengue, Mosquitoes, Malaria, or Corona, we have to eradicate this. That's how we have to eradicate Sanatana. Rather opposing Sanatana it should be eradicated,” he had said, eliciting sharp reaction from the ruling BJP.

On Thursday, another senior DMK leader A. Raja further fuelled the controversy after he compared Sanatan Dharma to HIV and leprosy.

While speaking at a protest meeting against Vishwakarma Yojana organised by Dravidar Kazhagam in Chennai, Raja said that "there is neither a sense of disgust associated with malaria and dengue nor were they considered a social disgrace. What is looked upon with disgust was leprosy in the past and HIV in recent times...As far as we are concerned, it should be looked upon as a disease which is a social disgrace like HIV and leprosy."

The ruling BJP has launched a frontal attack on the INDIA alliance over the DMK leaders’ remarks, accusing the opposition bloc of being anti-Hindu. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a council of ministers on Wednesday, said Udhayanidhi’s remarks on Sanatan Dharma need to “responded properly”.

Modi’s intervention, however, has prompted Chief Minister Stalin to come out in defence of his son. In a long statement put out on X (formerly Twitter), Stalin said Udhayanidhi didn’t call for a “genocide” of people following Sanatan Dharma as distorted by the BJP, but only spoke against the discrimination.

Stalin hit out at the pro-BJP forces for “spreading a false narrative” on what Udhayanidhi said and accused the Union ministers and BJP chief ministers of sharing the same lie.