On Tuesday, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Lalji Patel extended his support to party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya in the ongoing Shri Ram Charitamanas controversy and stated that copies of Shri Ramcharitmanas should be burnt as it fosters discrimination in the society. “Ramcharitmanas is not a religious book. It is a book that creates a divide in society and insults backward caste people and Dalits. It should be burnt,” he said.
He also appealed to people belonging to the backward class and instigated them to burn copies of Ramcharitmanas on the Hindu festival of Holi. “This book is like any other novel and it is being wrongly used to propagate the Hindu religion. Tulsidas ji has just stated his opinion. He had written the book for his own pleasure. It is not a religious book. The copies of the said book should be burnt on the day of Holika. Only then will the backward-class people and Dalits get their rights,” Patel said.
This is days after Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya and nine others were booked for instigating people to burn the pages of the Ramcharitmanas written by poet and saint Tulsidas in the Vrindavan Yojana of the PGI Kotwali area of Lucknow. The FIR was filed against Maurya and nine others by BJP leader Satnam Singh Lavi under various IPC sections, including 142 (unlawful assembly), 295 (defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion), 153-A (promoting enmity), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 506 (criminal intimidation) among others.
The nine other accused in the case have been identified as Devendra Pratap Yadav, Yashpal Singh Lodhi, Satyendra Kushwaha, Mahendra Pratap Yadav, Sujit Yadav, Naresh Singh, SS Yadav, Santosh Verma and Saleem. According to the reports, the Police on Monday arrested five of the 10 accused people in the case.
It was earlier reported that on January 29, Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha burnt the copies of Ramcharitmanas written by poet and saint Tulsidas in the Vrindavan Yojana of the PGI Kotwali area of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The OBC Mahasabha members announced their support to Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya who stirred controversy by saying that the Ramcharitmanas should be banned.
Maurya, while speaking to a news channel on January 22 claimed that certain portions of the Ramcharitmanas “insult” a large section of society on the basis of caste and demanded that these be “banned”. He said that the book was written by Tulsidas for his own pleasure and that it promotes social discrimination and spread hatred.
Later on January 27, he also called Hindu seers ‘Aatanki’, ‘Mahashaitan’, and ‘Jallad’. In a tweet posted on January 27 in Hindi, the SP leader wrote, “Recently, some religious contractors have declared a reward for those who cut my tongue and head; if someone else had said the same thing, the same contractor would have called him a terrorist, but now these saints, mahants, religious leaders, and caste-specific leaders have declared a reward for those who cut my tongue and head. What do you call such people aatanki, maha shaitan or jallads.”
Notably, it is not only Maurya or Lalji Patel who have demanded that the copies of Ramcharitmanas be burnt. Recently, on January 11, Bihar’s Education Minister Chandrashekhar said that the Hindu scripture Ramcharitmanas should be burnt like Manusmruti because it spreads hatred in society. He also said that the thoughts of the former chief of RSS, Golwalkar Guruji are spreading hatred, creating discrimination in the society.
