A UPSC tutoring centre based in Delhi named Drishti IAS has been trending on Twitter since Friday morning, with Netizens calling for the institute to be shut down. The outrage erupted after a video excerpt of one of the lectures by the managing director of the institute, Vikas Divyakirti, in which he is seen maligning Hinduism by mocking Hindu deities Lord Ram and Sita, went viral on social media.
In the purported video, the teacher audaciously compares Hindu Goddess Sita with “ghee contaminated by a dog.”
The aforementioned video, in which UPSC instructor Vikas Divyakirti is heard making inappropriate statements while teaching his UPSC students about the Sanskrit epic Ramayana was first shared on November 10, Thursday.
सुना है ये सज्जन कोई IAS कोचिंग चलाते हैं … ये माता सीता की तुलना कुत्ते द्वारा चाटे जाने वाले घी से कर रहे हैं
— Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) November 10, 2022
कैसे IAS बनायेंगे ..सोच लो
ये सारे लिब्रु कोई कसर नहीं छोड़ते सनातन धर्म की तौहीन करने की …बाक़ी किसी भी धर्म के बारे में बोलने से पहले ये फेविकोल पी लेते हैं pic.twitter.com/bXDk8I7Lci
“कुत्ते द्वारा चाटें जाने वाले घी की तुलना माता सीता से “
— Pradeep Bhandari(प्रदीप भंडारी)🇮🇳 (@pradip103) November 10, 2022
दृष्टि IAS ट्रेनिंग के संस्थापक विकास दिव्याकीर्ति की यह काल्पनिक बातें भगवान राम के हर भक्त की भावना को आहत कर रही हैं। लेकिन क्योंकि इन्होंने हिन्दू धर्म का मज़ाक़ उड़ाया है इसलिए इनको FIR नहीं पुरुस्कार मिलेंगे। pic.twitter.com/D539sZgwFf
The video soon went viral with many Netizens chastising the UPSC professor for maligning Hinduism. On Friday morning, hashtag #BanDrishtiIAS started trending on Twitter.
After the video went viral, netizens dug out video excerpts of Vikas Divyakirti’s other lectures and claimed that the Drishti IAS coach, over time, has been subtly brainwashing and instilling Hinduphobia in the minds of his students under the guise of helping them prepare for the UPSC Civil Services Exam.
Along with videos where he was villifying Lord Ram and Sita, netizens also shared a snippet of one of his lectures in which Vikas Divyakirti was seen accusing the Modi government of being hand-in-glove with Adani, an over-used trope propagated by the left-liberals, opposition parties, especially the Congress and its allies. In the same video, the UPSC teacher is also seen canvassing for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Drishti IAS teacher compares Hindu Goddess Sita with ‘ghee contaminated by dog’
In the first video which has been doing the rounds on social media since Thursday (November 10), the UPSC coach is heard narrating one episode from Srimad Valmiki Ramayana to his students. He claimed, in a clear falsification of Hindu mythology, that Lord Ram told his wife, goddess Sita, “that just as food licked by a dog becomes unfit for consumption, you are no longer acceptable to be my wife.” Vikas chuckles as he makes the ludicrous statement. A few pupils can also be heard laughing in the background after hearing his remarks.
Retweet If You Want . #BanDrishtiIAS pic.twitter.com/1yeLcZ9cHK
— Dr. Prachi Sadhvi (@Sadhvi_prachi) November 11, 2022
Drishti IAS managing director calls Lord Ram ‘casteist’
In another video, Vikas Divyakirti is seen brainwashing and subtly instilling Hinduphobia in the children’s brains by brazenly misrepresenting Ramayana and insulting the Hindu god Ram by labelling him a casteist.
Concocting yet another story and claiming it to be part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, Vikas started by saying that there are many versions of Ramayan and that every individual writer has a unique style. He added that the writer may add or subtract certain things. Then he jumps to his main allegation. He claims that to ‘save’ Bhagwan Ram, Tulsidas omitted the episode of Shambuk.
Then he narrates the story about Shambuk to his students, a story which is not a part of the original Srimad Valmiki Ramayan but the controversial Uttara Khand. He starts by saying that once Lord Ram was walking in his kingdom when he came upon a man named Shambuk, who was sitting and meditating beneath a tee. He approached him and asked who he was and which caste did he belong to. When Bhagwan Ram learnt that Sumbhuk was a shudra (Dalit), Ram was infuriated that a Dalit was doing penance and he took his sword and slit his throat.
This is a clear distortion of facts. There is clearly no mention of any such thing in the original Srimad Valmiki Ramayan. Ramayana was originally composed by sage Valmiki in 6 Kandas (parts), which ended with the coronation of Lord Ram and his ascent to the throne of Ayodhya.
The fallacious assertion made by Vikas Divyakirti is mentioned in the controversial Uttara Khand, which experts believe was not an original component of the Srimad Valmiki Ramayan but a later insertion, the validity of which has never been confirmed.
Campaigning for AAP?
In one of his sessions, the Drishti IAS managing director spoke extensively against the Modi government and how the latter and the industrialist Gautam Adani are hands in glove with each other.
In the same video, the teacher sings plaudits for the Aam Aadmi Party, describing it as a party that is always working for the betterment of ordinary people.
An UPSC coach Vikas Divyakirti was making rounds of sm for absurd explanation of subject of Hinduism. Same coach was found literally campaigning for AAP in class, in fact his videos shared by many AAP official handlers. This one was shared in Nov’21.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) November 4, 2022
1/ pic.twitter.com/wWw9chEzMS
In fact, the Aam Aadmi Party used the abovementioned snippet of the lecture in its campaign last year.
MUST WATCH 🔥
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 30, 2021
Renowned Lecturer & UPSC Coach Dr. Vikas Divyakirti explains the difference between @narendramodi & @ArvindKejriwal Model of Governance: pic.twitter.com/Pqyf8NLS8N
Drishti IAS was founded in 1999 by Vikas Divyakirti and Dr Taruna Verma. As per the Institute’s official website, Vikas is the Managing Director of the institute and has served at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India for some time through his selection in Civil Services Examination in 1996 and has also worked for some months as an Assistant Professor at Delhi University.
‘Vision IAS’ spreading anti-Hindu propaganda in the guise of UPSC coaching
In February this year, a video of a faculty of Vision IAS went viral on social media in which she was teaching the students about the rise of the Bhakti Movement. She propagated that Bhakti Movement was started due to the spread of ‘liberal ideas’ of Islam where they talked about ‘equality’ and ‘caste-less’ society.
In the video, the female teacher, identified as Smriti Shah, asked the students about the purpose of the Bhakti movement. When the students said it was “equality”, she said, “Islam arrived in India in the seventh century. It was very liberal and talked about equality. There was no caste system either. PM Modi gifted a miniature of Cheraman Juma Masjid to the Saudi King, which was the first mosque built in India. Islam had not arrived in India yet, but it had started showing its influence. It was free from any rigidity and casteism. There was a speciality of Islam that talked about complete devotion to one God (Allah). They were talking about the concept of one God.”
She further added, “As Islam said, there was only one God, and he created all, it means everyone was same. Islam talked about the universal brotherhood that attracted people. Those who belonged to the lower class started to convert to Islam to raise their status. That was the time when Hindu civilisation felt threatened. As a result, the Bhakti cult was started. They wanted to tell Hinduism is the same religion as Islam, and there was no difference.”
After her video surfaced on social media, the netizens objected to the type of propaganda-filled content being shared by the coaching centres against Hinduism.
Following the backlash, Vision IAS issued a statement. Calling the controversial teacher an ‘esteemed faculty’, Vision IAS alleged that the video only presented ‘a small part of a discussion’. It said, “The said discussion, which is currently not available on any official Vision IAS platform, has led to divergent opinions and reactions.”
Note: We have reached out to Drishti IAS for their comment. We will update the report if and when they respond.
Update: Although we did not receive any response from Drishti IAS, the organisation has been trying to remove all criticism by filing copyright claims over tweets, articles, videos, etc. that criticizes Vikas Divyakirti and his lectures. Some of the embedded media in this news report is unavailable due to the same reason.
