Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Union minister and BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday asserted Sanatan Dharma is the foundation of India and those talking about its eradication will be themselves "destroyed" by the "140 crore people of the country".
He questioned the "silence" of Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties over critical statements made on Sanatan Dharma by leaders of one of its key constituents, the DMK, and claimed the opposition bloc is riddled with internal contradictions.
Scindia, talking to reporters at the Indore airport, said the INDIA front has parties ranging from north to south and they speak in different voices.
"There is a party in north which thinks the move to make Kashmir an integral part of India was wrong. This alliance includes a party from south India which has called for destruction of Sanatan Dharma," he said.
'Rest of the INDIA parties were silent on the issue'
In a reference to the critical statements made by DMK leaders, including Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, on Sanatan Dharma, Scindia said rest of the INDIA parties were silent on the issue "as if someone had put tapes on their mouths".
Udhayanidhi Stalin had likened Sanatan Dharma to diseases like malaria and dengue, and called for its eradication.
"There is talk of destroying Sanatan Dharma that The Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi followed till his last breath. The alliance that talks about destroying Sanatan Dharma, which is the foundation of India, will be destroyed by the 140 crore people of the country," said the BJP leader.
Reacting to the boycott of 14 anchors of TV new channels by the 'INDIA' bloc, Scindia said "Those who have bad hearts do the work of blacklisting people. The people of the country are going to blacklist this alliance." Scindia alleged the Samajwadi Party (SP) indulged in "appeasement" when it ruled Uttar Pradesh and now a government with similar orientation is in office in Bihar.
The SP and the JD (U), which heads the coalition government in Bihar, are members of INDIA, a front of more than two dozen anti-BJP parties.
He also Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh, calling him the "biggest example of appeasement politics" in the state.