Sanatana row: Sitharaman says Udhayanidhi must realise responsibility as minister

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, reacting to DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks on Sanatana Dharma, said on Saturday (September 16) that he should speak realising his responsibility as a state minister.

She said despite witnessing insult to Lord Rama in Tamil Nadu in 1971, Sanatana Dharma did not respond with violence. But if Udhayanidhi expects no reaction to his Sanatana comments, it is wrong, she added.

Sitharaman was speaking to reporters in Chennai when she made the comments. She also wondered whether Udhayanidhi started the Sanatana debate eyeing the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Udhayanidhi’s party DMK is an INDIA bloc constituent.

“We didn’t start debate”

She was answering a question related to the criticism of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan that the BJP was stoking the Sanatana debate considering the polls.

“We did not start the debate; it is you who began it. Everyone has a right and they may express their views. However, after becoming a minister, a person should speak keeping in mind his responsibilities,” said Sitharaman.

She added that it is wrong to use words that may incite violence or have connotations of violence. Referring to Udhayanidhi’s remark following the controversy that his party would “continue to talk about Sanatana Dharma for 200 years”, she said, “You may talk and only talk. No one may, however, indulge in violent acts and nobody should speak that could stoke violence,” she asserted.

“Space for atheists”

Sitharaman said she grew up in a Tamil Nadu where a garland of sandals was flung at Lord Rama’s portrait and a procession was taken out. Even now, she had anguish about it and recalled that event now with pain, she said.

Still, Sanatana Dharma did not respond with violence. “That is Sanatana Dharma. We did not do anything like an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” In case some other religion had been targeted in such a manner, “you know what would have happened”, she said.

Sanatan Dharma has “described” atheists, too, she said, apparently hinting at space for them within the broader framework of the religion and the way of life it stood for. Hence, non-believers within the Sanatan Dharma are nothing new.

(With agency inputs)