Madras HC order says Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Sanatan remarks amount to ‘hate speech’

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday mounted a sharp attack on what it termed the opposition “ecosystem”, referring to the Congress and the INDIA bloc, after the Madras High Court observed that remarks made by DMK minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sanatan Dharma amounted to “hate speech”.

The BJP demanded that legal action be initiated against the DMK leader, saying the court’s observations had vindicated its long-standing charge that the comments were not protected free speech but incitement against a faith.

The party also welcomed the High Court’s order quashing a criminal case filed by the Trichy City Crime Branch against BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya over a social media post related to Stalin’s 2023 remarks.

Addressing a press conference at BJP headquarters, party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala accused the DMK government of misusing state machinery to target political opponents instead of acting against what he described as hate speech.

“I want to ask the ecosystem, what happened to free speech in the case of Amit Malviya?” Poonawala said.

He said the Madras High Court had clearly noted that the statements made by Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sanatan Dharma in 2023 crossed the line into hate speech, yet no action was taken against the minister in Tamil Nadu.

Demanding accountability, Poonawala said the DMK minister should be removed from his post and prosecuted. “Congress claims to be a champion of Hindus but goes silent despite a DMK minister’s open call for exterminating Sanatan. When will Congress say that the state government should initiate action against Udhayanidhi Stalin?” he asked.

Hailing the court’s ruling, the BJP spokesperson remarked, “One thing needs to be said about the Madras High Court order that came yesterday — Satyamev Jayate. Truth always prevails.”

He alleged that the FIR against Malviya was filed with “vendetta and vindictive politics” as its sole objective. “This case was registered only to harass and persecute Amit Malviya for speaking the truth,” Poonawala said.

Referring to Stalin’s controversial speech from September 2023, he said the DMK leader, who is the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, had not merely spoken of opposing Sanatan Dharma but had called for its “complete abolition and eradication”.

“When these remarks were highlighted by Amit Malviya, instead of acting against Udhayanidhi Stalin, the entire DMK machinery — police and other agencies — was unleashed to target him,” Poonawala alleged.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, while quashing the 2023 FIR against Malviya, observed that the minister’s comments amounted to hate speech. It also noted that no criminal case had been registered against Udhayanidhi Stalin in Tamil Nadu over the remarks, even though cases had been filed in other states.

The controversy dates back to a public event in September 2023, when Udhayanidhi Stalin said, “Few things cannot be opposed; they should be abolished. We can’t oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria or corona; we have to eradicate them. In the same way, we have to eradicate Sanatana, rather than opposing it.”

The remarks triggered nationwide political backlash, with the BJP and several Hindu organisations describing them as an “open call for genocide” against followers of Sanatan Dharma.

(This story was taken from syndicated feed and was only edited for style by Gujarat Samachar Digital team)