Jakarta (TIP)- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, September 14,  waded into the Sanatan Dharma row, slamming the opposition “INDIA” bloc for what he described as “their pledge to destroy the Sanatan faith that has united Indians through centuries”.

At two separate events in election-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the PM, in a blistering attack on the Opposition, urged people to unite and defeat their “nefarious designs”, saying: “Ghamandia (arrogant) alliance wants to push us back into slavery.” This is the first time the PM has spoken on the issue that has snowballed into a major controversy ever since Udhayanidhi Stalin of the DMK, an INDIA bloc party, compared Sanatan Dharma with “HIV, Covid and malaria” a few days ago.

“Today, Bharat is displaying its capacity to unite the world, but some parties are busy dividing the society. They have formed an INDI Alliance, which some also call Ghamandia. Their leader is unknown but at a recent meeting in Mumbai they have finalised the strategy and hidden agenda, which is to attack the culture of India, the faith of its people, to destroy ideas, ideals and traditions that have bound us together for thousands of years,” said the PM. Citing Sanatan ideology as the inspiration behind Ahilya Bai Holkar’s social work and warrior queen Rani Lakshmibai’s courage in the face of British assaults, the PM said even Mahatma Gandhi considered Sanatan ideology eternal and his last words were Hey Ram. “But this Ghamandia alliance wants to finish Sanatan ideology… shatter Sanatan faith which inspired Lokmanya Tilak to link Ganesh puja with the freedom struggle,” the PM said days after he signalled Union Cabinet and BJP colleagues to go out all guns blazing against the INDIA bloc on the issue.

The PM was speaking first at Madhya Pradesh’s Bina, where he launched development projects worth Rs 50,700 crore, and later at Raigarh’s Kondatarai in Chhattisgarh, where he dedicated Rs 6,350 worth of rail projects to the state.

The PM, while tearing into the Opposition, cautioned people, saying: “They want to demolish your faith… the very ideology that kept us together for thousands of years. Every Sanatani, every Indian will have to stay alert. Ghamandia alliance wants to push India back into a thousand year slavery but we have to defeat their designs with our unity.”

The PM also took the occasion to stress the successful conduct of G20 and asked people whether or not they felt proud at India’s rising global stature after the event. Underlining what he called “Modi ki guarantee”, the PM sought to contrast the Congress as a “corrupt party” vis-à-vis the BJP, which, he said, “was devoted to politics of national and public service”.

The PM listed a range of government schemes even as he cautioned people about “the conspiracy against their faith” and spoke of how the country was moving forward, “casting away the last vestiges of slavery”. The searing attack comes at a time when the BJP is directly pitted against the grand old party in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan (Congress ruled) and MP (BJP ruled). While the BJP had lost Chhattisgarh to the Congress after 15 years in 2018, in MP, it faces anti-incumbency this year due to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan being in the chair since 2005. In Rajasthan, governments mostly alternate.

Source: TNS