Bihar Grand Alliance faces Ramcharitmanas tremors again, Jitan Manjhi calls Ram an imaginary character

Manjhi, who was responding to media queries on the Ramcharitmanas row, said: “I always hold that Ram and Ravan are imaginary characters. But even as imaginary characters, Ravan used to follow [religious] rituals more strictly than Ram. While Ram benefited from some divine interventions at times of crisis, Ravan always had to fend for himself.”

Asked why the RJD and other parties often rake up Ram, Manjhi said: “It is because people take Ram as a matter of faith. Ramcharitmanas is a good book with many good things. But the likes of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Dr B R Ambedkar had also spoken of weeding out garbage from it. I want to ask people who show utmost reference for Tulsidas, the writer of Ramcharitmanas, but do not show as much respect for Valmiki, the writer of the earliest known Ramayana, is it because of Manuvadi thought creeping into the system?”

Manjhi added: “People read too much into my questioning of Ram. When Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rahul Sankrityayan and Jawaharlal Nehru had also questioned the existence of Ram in some way or another, no one questioned them, because they belonged to the upper castes. But when I do it, people target me.”

Manjhi also indirectly supported the RJD’s Chandra Shekhar, who had kicked off the row by demanding that some controversial portions of the Ramcharitmanas be taken out. “As I said, some portions of the Ramcharitmanas and the Ramayana have to be taken out,” said the former CM.

While the JD(U) refrained from reacting to Manjhi’s salvo, BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand called Manjhi’s opinion “irrelevant”. “Manjhi has been unnecessarily trying to get some public attention by raking up the Lord Ram issue again. We wonder how he called himself a descendent of Shabari (forest dwelling tribals) if he did not believe in Lord Ram. For that matter, why does he have Ram as his middle name?”