Udhayanidhi Stalin recently claimed that Sanatana Dharma is against social justice (File)
Reacting to Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi's statement on social discrimination, Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin said that we are also saying what the Governor has said, which is why we are saying we have to eliminate "Sanatana".
This comes after Tamil Nadu Governor on Sunday said that social discrimination is still a major problem in Tamil Nadu and it is huge when compared to other states.
"We are also saying what he (Governor) is saying. That's why we are saying we have to eliminate "Sanatana". We are also speaking about caste discrimination and we are saying by birth all are equal. Wherever caste discrimination is there it is wrong. We are raising our voice against that," Udhayanidhi Stalin said.
Meanwhile, DMK leader TKS Elangovan said that he has failed to act as a Governor.
"In the North, an upper caste man can urinate on a lower caste boy and nobody can question. That is the kind of social justice from Mr Ravi's area. How he is acting towards the lower caste people I don't know? I am calling him Mr Ravi because he has failed to act as a Governor," Mr Elangovan said.
"What is the duty of the Governor? To give ascent to the bills passed by the legislature but he has not done that duty and is serving as the stooge of the RSS group," he added.
Congress MP Karthi Chidambaram also hit out at the Tamil Nadu Governor calling for his immediate recall.
"The Governor of Tamil Nadu has always sort of comments which are unbecoming of the office he holds. He was a troublemaker in his previous assignment in Nagaland, and he continues to be a troublemaker in Tamil Nadu. I would urge the President to withdraw the pleasure of this Governor and recall him immediately. He always crosses the boundaries of constitutional functionary" said Karthi Chidambaram.
The state unit of the BJP sprang to the defence of the governors accusing the state government run by the DMK of shying away from its responsibilities.
"They don't want to find the truth because it will create a problem of caste. We saw that that a 12th standard boy was attacked by some other caste... Every day we are seeing so many issues. We have seen Tamil Nadu also has a high number of deaths in manual scavenging. Manual scavenging is because of the caste discrimination we have seen...What Governor RN Ravi has said is 100 percent true, "Tamil Nadu BJP Vice President Narayanan Thirupathy said.
Earlier on Sunday, the Tamil Nadu Governor participated in the 'Tamil Seva Sangam' program and said that our Constitution is not against 'dharma' ..it is the people who want to break this country, they have given a distorted interpretation of secularism.
"We have to understand the true meaning of secularism in our constitution....those talking about eradicating Hinduism have a hidden agenda to break this country in collaboration with hostile foreign powers. They will not succeed as Bharat has inherent strength...Unfortunately, there is unacceptable social discrimination in our society. We have untouchability and social discrimination. A large section of our brothers and sisters are not treated with equality. It is not what the Hindu dharma says. It is a social evil and it must be eradicated," he said.
He further said, "In Tamil Nadu, this social discrimination is still a major problem. Every day, I hear stories of our brothers and sisters from Scheduled Castes not being allowed access to temples. In our state, youth are wearing caste bands. A State that taught so much about social justice is exploiting people in the name of caste. We don't hear stories of such discrimination from neighbouring states."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)