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‘Tell one Sanatani quality of yours’: Kapil Sibal targets BJP on Brij Bhushan, Manipur amid row

Sep 17, 2023 01:09 PM IST

Kapil Sibal questioned the Narendra Modi government's handling of issues including Manipur ethnic clashes, and Brij Bhushan Singh on wrestlers’ row.

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday trained guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party over the ongoing row on Sanatana Dharma, triggered by Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. Sibal questioned the saffron party's credibility to claim themselves as the protectors of the Hindu religious beliefs, while pointing to the Narendra Modi government's handling of issues including Manipur ethnic clashes, and Brij Bhushan Singh on wrestlers’ row.

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal at Parliament House complex in New Delhi.(PTI file)
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal at Parliament House complex in New Delhi.(PTI file)

“Are they (BJP) the votaries or the protectors of 'Sanatana Dharma?” Sibal asked, asserting that the virtues of 'Sanatana Dharma' are honesty, no injury to living beings, purity, charity, and patience, etc.

“…Can they ever protect 'Sanatana Dharma' when their whole activities are unrelated to the virtues of a 'Sanatani'?...Is it 'Sanatani' to protect somebody who is alleged to have molested women wrestlers? Is it 'Sanatani' to keep quiet about what was happening in Manipur,” he said, and asked if building a Ram Temple is sufficient to become a ‘Ram bhakt’. BJP lawmaker Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is currently under investigation for alleged multiple counts of sexually abuse during his tenure as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India since 2012.

The Rajya Sabha MP further challenged the BJP leaders to display their Sanatani qualities and said “…Building a Ram temple is politics, while becoming a Ram Bhakt is purity...I challenge them, please tell the people of this country what one quality of a 'Sanatani' you have?"

The Sanatana Dharma controversy refuses to die down as the BJP is repeatedly targeting the Opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A over the controversial comments made by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader – an ally of the alliance. Stalin, in early September, had triggered a row by equating 'Sanatana' (Sanatan Dharma) with "mosquitoes, Dengue, Malaria, fever and Corona", adding that it should be eradicated like these ailments.

While the DMK defended Stalin's position, saying that his comments were taken out of context and linked the “eternal” nature of Sanatana Dharma with social evils such as untouchability and casteism, the I.N.D.I.A bloc has not issued any official statement in this regard. However, many non-DMK I.N.D.I.A leaders condemned disrespect to any religious sentiments in their personal capacity.

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