Won’t endorse Stalin’s Sanatan remarks: AAP’s Chaddha

NEW DELHI | Updated: 14 September, 2023 12:00 pm IST

Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha declared his Sanatan condemning Udhayanidhi

NEW DELHI: Amidst the ongoing war of words between the DMK and BJP, another rift formed in the INDIA alliance, as Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha condemned Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader, Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comments on Sanatana Dharma, on Wednesday.

“I am a Sanatani myself and I condemn any comment that aims to insult a religion. I am against what he (Udhayanidhi Stalin) said and I will continue to oppose it,” said Chadha. He added that no comment that seeks to insult any religion should not be condoned and politicians like Tamil Nadu chief minister, MK Stalin’s son should avoid making such statements.

Earlier at an event in Chennai, Udhayanidhi, who is the Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development in the DMK government, had taken potshots at ‘Sanatana Dharma’, comparing it to “dengue, malaria and corona”, calling for its eradication. This comment led many from the Bharatiya Janata Party and NDA faction to take control of the narrative. They accused Udhayanidhi of calling for a genocide of all Sanatanis.

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Karnataka Congress leader and Mallikarjun Kharge’s son, Priyank Kharge, was the first to come to support Stalin’s son, while the Tamil Nadu CM arrived in time to the aid of his son. Stalin claimed that the BJP was “twisting” the narrative against his son.

Presently, both Udhayanidhi and Priyank Kharge are facing multiple FIRs lodged in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

Chadha, however, kept up the attack on the BJP, despite rifts showing, as he questioned the saffron party’s lack of choices. “Does anybody in the BJP have the guts to say that they want Nitin Gadkari to become PM or say that they want Yogi Adityanath to become the PM candidate for 2024?”

Following these statements, Chadha was scheduled to appear for an INDIA alliance sub-group meeting held at Sharad Pawar’s Delhi residence, where they decided to discuss seat sharing, caste census and other pressing issues. This is set to be discussed in another scheduled meeting in Bhopal during the first week of October.