Former India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad has attributed the BJP's impending triumph, in three out of four states where Assembly Elections were held, to a controversy over 'Sanatana Dharma'.
"Abusing Sanatana Dharma was bound to have its consequences," Prasad posted on X, the social media platform also known as Twitter. The former fast bowler congratulated the BJP "for a landslide victory". "Just another testimony of the amazing leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and great work by the party cadre at grassroots levels," Prasad posted.
A few months ago, Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin of the DMK, an ally of Congress, had courted trouble by saying the Sanatana Dharma "divides people in the name of caste and religion". He declared that "uprooting Sanatana Dharma" was "upholding humanity and human equality".
The Congress came up with mixed responses. KC Venugopal, Congress' general secretary in-charge of organisation, said his party's ideology was 'sarva dharma samabhava', which roughly translates to all religions are the same.
However, Karnataka minister and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank defended Stalin's remark. "Any religion that does not give equal rights or does not treat you like humans is as good as disease," Kharge said.
At the time of writing, the BJP was leading in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
