Madurai:
Droupadi Murmu, who belongs to a tribal community, was made the President and first citizen of the country and that is Sanatan Dharma, the Tamil Nadu BJP said on Wednesday.
Seeking to rebut DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Youth Welfare Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s accusation that Ms Murmu had not been invited to the new Parliament building’s recent inauguration and that showed Sanatan’s “discriminatory” practice, state BJP president K Annamalai wondered why the DMK did not vote for her.
“Why the DMK did not vote in support of her in the Presidential election?” he questioned.
Asserting that all castes are equal, he said, to counter the DMK and for the sake of argument, he was asking Tamil Nadu’s ruling party about the candidate it supported.
“You (DMK) voted for Yashwant Sinha (against Murmu); to which community does he belong?” Annamalai asked during his interaction with reporters at Srivilliputhur near here.
“We the people of the country made her the President and that is Sanatan Dharma; why did you not vote in her favour?” he said.
The BJP leader also questioned if the DMK voted in favour of Ram Nath Kovind from the Scheduled Castes community.
“We, the believers of Sanatan Dharma, voted for him as we believe that all are equal. Learn about Sanatan Dharma from us and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he added.
On Tuesday, Udhayanidhi Stalin, asked by reporters to give an “example” to Sanatan’s discriminatory practices that he opposed, said the “best example is Droupadi Murmu not being invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament building, that is the best current example”.
Even if Udhayanidhi had spoken about “eradicating” any other religion, his party’s would have been the first voice against it, Mr Annamalai said. Similarly, he was opposing Udhayanidhi’s comment against Sanatan Dharma, he added.
The BJP leader said for decades, the DMK has been levelling the very same allegations and making foolish accusations.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)