Udhayanidhi Stalin tells Madras High Court Sanatana Dharma remark was not against Hinduism but against caste system

Tamil Nadu minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Udhayanidhi Stalin Thursday told the Madras High Court that his statement on Sanatana Dharma was not against Hinduism or the Hindu way of life but was merely a call for ending caste based discriminatory practices. .Senior Counsel P Wilson, who appeared for Stalin, told single-judge Justice Anitha Sumanth that DMK was elected to power by the people of Tamil Nadu, the majority of whom were practicing Hindus."Majority of the State and even the majority of the DMK’s cadres were Hindus and it were them who had elected the DMK government in Tamil Nadu,” Wilson contended. .On September 2, at a conference organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association in Chennai, Udhayanidhi Stalin had said that a few things must not merely be opposed but should be eradicated.“Just like dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or coronavirus need to be eradicated, we have to eradicate Sanatana,” he had said leading to widespread outrage.Office bearers of right wing organisation Hindu Munnani then filed three writ petitions before the High Court taking objection to Stalin's remarks..During the hearing Wilson also claimed that the writ petition filed against Stalin, DMK member PK Sekar Babu and party MP A Raja were politically motivated.The Senior Counsel argued that prescribing rules for disqualification of MPs and MLAs was the sole prerogative of the parliament under Article 191(e) and that the Court should respect the separation of powers. “Only when there is any vacuum in the Constitution, the Court can intervene but not when the parliament has already prescribed certain disqualifications,” Wilson said..Senior Counsel G Rajagopalan, who appeared for the petitioners, however, argued that if DMK believed it was brought to power by Hindus, then it was actually “oxymoronic” for its leaders to openly denounce or call for ending Sanatana Dharma.Rajagopalan also argued that DMK MP A Raja had been made member of parliament on the SC/ST quota and such reservation was open only for those who were Hindus..All lawyers completed their oral arguments and the Court reserved its order on the pleas. It granted a week’s time to all parties to submit their written arguments.