Bihar minister Chandra Shekhar targets ‘Ramcharitmanas’ again, likens it to potassium cyanide

The BJP accused the RJD of “sharpening caste binaries” while CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), an ally of the RJD in the ruling Mahagathbandhan alliance, said Chandra Shekhar is deviating from the path of governance agenda.

Bihar Education Minister and senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Chandra Shekhar has once again stirred a row by criticising Ramcharitmanas, likening the religious text to the highly toxic chemical compound potassium cyanide and saying he would continue to oppose the “casteist references” in it.

The BJP called the education minister’s fresh salvo at Ramcharitmanas “a sustained attempt to sharpen caste binaries and create social chasm”. Chief Minister NitishKumar’s Janata Dal (United), an ally of the RJD in the ruling Mahagathbandhan alliance, also attacked the minister for deviating from the path of “governance agenda”.

Speaking at Hindi Granth Academy on the occasion of Hindi Diwas Friday, Chandra Shekhar said: “I am often targeted for my remarks on Ramcharitmanas. But I will continue to attack it because it contains potassium cyanide. I am appalled at too many casteist references in the text.”

Chandra Shekhar highlighted a couplet from Ramcharitmanas: “Pujahi bipra sakal gunhina, Shudra na pujhu Ved pravina (A Brahmin without any quality can be worshipped, but a Shudra having knowledge of Vedas cannot be worshipped)”.

The education minister added, “When I had targeted similar casteist references in ‘Sundar Kand’, an award of Rs 10 crore was offered from some quarters for chopping off my tongue. I wonder what the worth of my neck should be then.”

The RJD neither fully supported him nor distanced itself from his remarks. The party’s national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta said, “While certain things regarding social discrimination need to be discussed, the education minister should refrain from using harsh terms. We only associate with politics of development.”

Chandra Shekhar, who represents  Madhepura, first targeted the religious text at the  Nalanda Open University convocation function in Patna last year. The religious text, written by the 16th-century bhakti poet Tulsidas, “spreads hatred in the society”, he had said. Manusmriti, Ramcharitmanas and A Bunch of Thoughts by M S Golwalkar are “divisive texts”, and B R Ambedkar was right in opposing Manusmriti, he had said.

After Chandra Shekhar’s latest comments, senior  BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs  Nityananad Rai criticised the Bihar education minister’s remarks. “The biggest potassium cyanide is politics of appeasement and a tendency to encourage crime and corruption. Objectionable remarks on Sanatan Dharma and Ramcharitmanas reflect a sick mentality”. He also advised the education minister to engage a “good teacher to explain and interpret Manas” for him.

BJP OBC Morcha national general secretary Nikhil Anand added: “While the RJD leader has been trying to sharpen caste binaries and create a social chasm with his remarks, leaders like him are also ending up attacking Lord Ram and Lord Krishna in the process.” Anand said Chandrashekhar seemed to have the tacit backing from the RJD leadership.

Meanwhile, JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told The Indian Express: “What the education minister said is against the core governance agenda of Mahagathbandhan. He has also been going against the core spirit of INDIA (the Opposition bloc at the national level) that talks about safeguarding what is enshrined in the Constitution”.

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SOURCE: -THE INDIAN EXPRESS