`Sarv dharma sam-bhav' is core tenet of Sanatan Dharma: Digvijaya Singh

Gwalior, Jun 14 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Saturday said anyone who does not believe in `sarva dharma sam-bhav' can not be a true follower of the Sanatan Dharma, and the Bhagavad Gita is its most revered text, not Manusmriti.

The Rajya Sabha member was speaking at the social justice conference here amid a demand by some organisations that a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar be installed on the premises of the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Reaffirming his faith in "Sanatan Dharma", the Congress leader said the core of the religion is harmony among all faiths. "Anyone who claims to be a Hindu but denies the idea of `sarva dharma sam-bhav' (all religions should be treated equally) cannot be a true follower of Sanatan Dharma," he said.

"As a follower of Sanatan Dharma, I believe there is a conspiracy to malign it. Those doing so are the people who want to polarise society along caste and religious lines for political gains," Singh said, claiming that the ancient caste system was based on one's deeds and merit, not birth.

Quoting the Bhagavad Gita, Singh said the 18th chapter states that a person's social duties stem from their abilities and actions, not their lineage. "The Gita, not Manusmriti, is the most revered text of Sanatan Dharma. Those committing injustice today in the name of birth-based caste hierarchy are the ones fanning hatred," he said.

"This is not a fight about varna-vyavastha (caste system), it is about ideology. The RSS, which is an organisation driven by a specific ideology, wants to illegitimately capture the country's institutions and is spreading the fire of hate," he alleged.

Referring to Dr Ambedkar's appointment as chairman of the Constitution drafting committee, Singh said, "Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Mahatma Gandhi agreed that the person should be someone who had suffered generations of social injustice, seen poverty firsthand, educated himself standing on his own feet, understood the law and was fearless. That man was B R Ambedkar." PTI COR LAL KRK