Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Samajwadi Party on Monday distanced itself from remarks of party leader Swami Prasad Maurya highlighting the “objectionable language” of Ramcharitmanas when it came to the Dalits, tribals and backward class.
As the BJP attacked Maurya and the party, the SP’s chief whip in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Manoj Pandey, said he had already given his reply over a video message. In the video, Pandey says people everywhere, including abroad, read Ramcharitmanas, accept it and follow it. “We all repect Ramcharitmanas and granths of other religions too,” he says.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary claimed the party was unaware about the remark as he and party president Akhilesh Yadav were in Uttarakhand on Sunday.
Former BSP and BJP minister, and now an SP MLC, Maurya on Sunday backed the remarks by Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar saying Ramcharitmanas contained many objectionable remarks over caste, and told a news channel: “Koi crore log isko nahi padhte. Sab bakwas hai. Yeh Tulsidas ne apni prashansa aur khushi ke liye likha hai. Dharm ho, hum uska swagat karte hain. Par dharm ke naam par gaali kyun? Dalit ko, adivasiyon ko, pichdon ko. Jaati lekar ke naam. Shudra keh kar ke, kyun gaali de rahe hain? Kya gaali dena dharm hai? (It is a lie that crores of people read it. It was written by Tulsidas for self-praise and his own happiness. We welcome religion. But why abuses in the name of religion? Abuse of Dalits, tribals, backwards, by naming their castes, and calling them shudra. Is giving abuses religious?)”
Maurya had switched to the BJP from the BSP ahead of the 2017 polls. Five years later, ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, he moved from the BJP to the SP. After he lost in the elections, the SP got him elected to the Legislative Council.
Saying that only an “insane” person can make such a comment, BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary asked the SP to clarify whether it was Maurya’s individual belief or of the party. “The Samajwadi Party has a history of putting bans on our religious celebrations and festivals. SP governments put a ban on kanwar yatra. When terror attacks happened on our mutts and mandirs, the government (SP’s) stood in support of terrorists and tried to withdraw their cases, but failed,” Chaudhary alleged.
He demanded that Maurya apologise for hurting sentiments of crores of people and withdraw his remarks. “If he does not, the SP should take action against him.”
Minister for OBC Welfare and and BJP OBC Morcha state president Narendra Kashyap also demanded that the SP take action against Maurya. Talking of the firing on “Ram bhakts” trying to get to Babri Masjid while late SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was chief minister, Kashyap said: “The SP’s mindset has always been against Lord Ram and Ramcharitmanas. Commenting on a sacred book with which sentiments of the majority population are associated creates enmity in society. The SP should ask him to apologise.”
PTI reported Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s warning to those “trying to insult” Hindu religious scriptures and said these would be taught to students in government schools. Lauding Tulsidar for writing Ramcharitmanas, the CM said in Bhopal: “People who insult these great men will not be tolerated. In Madhya Pradesh we will make our children moral and ensure their all-round development by teaching these holy books.”
