The Madras High Court asked Tamil Nadu sports minister Udhayanidhi Stalin to give details of the research upon which his controversial speech on eradicating principles of Sanatan Dharma was based.
Justice Anitha Sumanth also asked Stalin, who is the son of Chief Minister MK Stalin, what was the basis of his understanding of Sanatan Dharma and what was the research that had gone into him equating the Varnashrama Dharma with Sanatan Dharma.
The Court also directed Stalin to submit a typed copy of the text of his speech.
The Court was hearing arguments by Stalin on a plea filed against him and State minister PK Sekarbabu and Member of Parliament A Raja by the Hindu Munnani seeking their removal from office.
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 Sanatan,” he had said leading to widespread outrage.
Office bearers of Hindu Munnani then filed three writ petitions before the High Court taking objection to Stalin’s remarks.
They sought issuance of a writ of quo warranto seeking explanation from Stalin, Sekarbabu and A Raja under what authority were they were continuing to hold public offices despite having participated in a conference calling for the annihilation of Sanatan Dharma.
Senior Counsel P Wilson, who appeared for Udhayanidhi Stalin on Wednesday, told the Court that the writ was not maintainable because Stalin had not breached his oath of office. Wilson further said that Stalin had merely called for eradication of some problematic principles of the Sanatan dharma, particularly the ‘Varnashrama dharma’ that pertains to duties performed according to the system of the four varnas or class and caste-based division.
Wilson told the Court that whatever Stalin had said was not new and even Dr. BR Ambedkar had called for such eradication of the varnashrama dharma. He said that the text of most of Ambedkar’s speeches calling for eradication of the caste divide and Stalin’s Sanatan dharma speech were based primarily on a proprietary text published by the Banaras Hindu University between 1902 and 1937.
“The principles of varnashrama are derived from the manu smriti on which the Sanatan Dharma is based. And the caste divide that it prescribes runs so deep that even the President of Bharat is not immune from it. Former President Ramnath Kovind and his wife were stopped from entering the sanctum sanctorum of a temple because they are Dalits,” Wilson said.
The Court then directed Wilson to submit a copy of the invitation cards for the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association conference where Stalin had made the speech in September this year and a typed copy of the text of such speech.
