Chennai/IBNS: Amid strong criticisms from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Union Ministers for his remarks on Sanatana dharma, Tamil Nadu Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister and DMK youth wing leader Udhayanidhi Stalin on Thursday said the BJP regime at the Centre was using it as a weapon to protect itself from its failures.

In a statement here, he alleged that the BJP leaders were twisting his remarks made at the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artistes Association (TNPWAA) conference recently.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Ministerial colleagues were using the political row that has since erupted over his remarks, as a weapon to protect themselves.

“They consider this row a weapon to protect themselves with. What is surprising is that Union Ministers including Amit Shah and Chief Minister of BJP-ruled States are also demanding action against me based on fake news,” he added.

The Prime Minister and his colleagues are using this row to divert the attention of the people from issues like Manipur riots and the CAG report highlighting Rs 7.5 lakh crore irregularities.

Referring to the cases being filed against him in several states, Udhayanidhi said in fact he should be the one to file criminal cases against various BJP leaders for having spread slander against him.

"For the last 9 years, all your (BJP) promises are empty promises. What have you exactly done for our welfare? This is a question currently being raised in unison by the entire country against an unarmed, fascist BJP government," he said.

"It is in this background that the BJP leaders have twisted my speech at the TNPWAA conference as ‘inciting genocide’. They consider it a weapon to protect themselves.

"In all fairness, I should be the one filing criminal cases and other court cases against them for spreading slander while holding respectable positions. But I am aware that this is their mode of survival. They don’t know how else to survive, so I decided not to do that," the Minister said.

"I am one of the political heirs of Perarignar Anna, the founder of the DMK. Everyone knows that we are not enemies of any religion," he added.

The controversy erupted after Udhayanidhi Stalin said that "Sanatana Dharma is like malaria and dengue and so it must be eradicated and not opposed".

Senior BJP leaders have dismissed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's son as "Udhayanidhi Hitler" and slammed the opposition INDIA alliance as "anti-Hindu".

[With UNI inputs]