CHENNAI: Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin said on Monday that he has not changed his stance on Sanatana Dharma. “As a human being, I oppose Sanatana Dharma as my duty and there is nothing wrong in my remarks,” he told reporters at VCK headquarters.
He reiterated his stand while answering a question on an observation of the Madras High Court. In a related petition, the court had observed that it was dereliction of duty on the part of police as they did not act against Udhayanidhi and HR&CE Minister P K Sekarbabu who had participated in a ‘Sanatana Dharma eradication conference’ on September 2.
Justice G Jayachandran made the observation dismissing a petition that sought a direction to police to accord permission to conduct a ‘Conference for eradicating Dravidian ideology and coordinating Tamils.’ The petition was filed by a city resident.
Udhayanidhi, who had come to VCK office to collect signatures for the DMK’s signature campaign against NEET, said, “I never backtracked on my stance on Santana issue. I consider this opposition of mine as the duty of a human being and I don’t see anything wrong in doing so. I would like to stress that great leaders like BR Ambedkar, ‘Thanthai’ Periyar EV Ramasamy and VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan have also extensively discussed Sanatana Dharma and its ills.”
Talking about the signature campaign, Udhayanidhi said, “NEET exemption will help the entire state and it concerns all political parties. I have sought support from leaders of various parties, and have requested time from leaders of AIADMK and PMK too for their support in this regard.”
Udhayanidhi interacted with Thirumavalavan and VCK’s Ravikumar, MLAs J Mohamed Shanavas, SS Balaji, and M Babu. In the evening, Udhayanidhi visited MDMK headquarters, where he met party’s general secretary Vaiko and other functionaries.
(With inputs from agencies)