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While the BJP continued its attack against the INDIA coalition on the Sanatan Dharma row through its social media handles, the Opposition parties instead focused on the ruling party’s economic credentials, particularly the government’s recent move to cut import duties on some food items.
While most Opposition parties stayed away from the Sanatan Dharma row triggered by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks, members of Tamil Nadu’s ruling party have remained in the eye of the storm. In a post on X, the BJP shared a video of Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi purportedly saying at an public meet on Sunday that the INDIA coalition was brought together to “destroy Sanatan Dharma”.
The top BJP leadership took up the issue, with Lok Sabha MP and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and party national president J P Nadda claiming Udhayanidhi’s remarks were part of a larger INDIA coalition strategy. Prasad and Nadda claimed the “silence” of INDIA bloc leaders on the issue proved that an anti-Sanatan Dharma stance was part of their agenda.
The BJP’s Tamil Nadu state president K Annamalai shared a video on X of DMK MP A Raja’s remarks on Sanatan Dharma and claimed “the DMK is the principal reason for creating caste divide and hatred in Tamil Nadu”. The DMK, however, remained silent on the issue.
With Rahul Gandhi continuing his tour of European universities, the Congress shared videos of his address at the University of Oslo, where he said “the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have nothing to do with Hinduism”.
Several Opposition parties, however, focused on inflation and the government’s recent move to cut import duties on some food items. With the retail inflation rate in August staying above the tolerance band of the Reserve Bank of India despite a recent decline, the Congress and the Janata Dal (United) targeted the government on cost of living.
Jairam Ramesh, the Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP, said while the poor are “most troubled by inflation”, only Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “capitalist friends” were growing wealthier. Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that “47% people have returned their life insurance policies in the last 5 years” due to rising prices. The JD(U) said prices remained high despite the BJP’s claim of “amrit kaal”.
The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal traded charges with the BJP over the reduction of import duties on agricultural products from the United States, including on apples and walnuts, on Tuesday. The Congress claimed the BJP had gone back on its promise to protect the domestic apple industry and instead “gifted” concessions to the US. The RJD called it an “anti-farmer decision” in the guise of “diplomacy”. Not to leave Gautam Adani out of the issue, the Congress called him the “apple of Modi’s eyes.”
Amit Malviya, the BJP’s IT cell chief, claimed there was no change in the import duty. He said the government had withdrawn a retaliatory tariff in response to the US’s protectionist measures on steel and aluminium goods.
