Manoj Jha poem controversy: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Kumar Jha’s mention of Om Prakash Valmiki’s poem ‘Thakur ka kuan’ during a discussion on the Women’s Reservation Bill in the recently concluded special session of Parliament stirred a massive row with Opposition parties claiming that the “sentiments” of the upper caste communities were hurt.
While JD(U) MLC Sanjay Singh has warned that Rajputs should not be “incited”, the BJP has claimed that sentiments of the upper caste community had been hurt.
Jha had made an impassioned plea for ensuring adequate representation of women from weaker sections like SCs, STs and OBCs and, true to his poetic style, recited a verse composed by the late Dalit writer.
Titled ‘Thakur ka kuan’, the poem gave a moving description of caste inequality and Jha had added by way of a comment that “we all have a ‘Thakur’ (a term often also used broadly for the land-owning class) within us. We must finish it off”.
As the poem stirred row, Jha, a professor at Delhi University, clarified he he did not intend to insult anyone with the poem, but meant to highlight “a tendency to dominate” through the Thakur reference.
BJP Bihar leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi demanded that RJD leader and state Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav apologise on Jha’s behalf. “Jha has hurt the sentiments of Rajputs,” Modi said.
Rajput leader Anand Mohan, who recently got out from jail where he was serving sentence for a murder conviction due to a Bihar government order, in a strong remark said, “I would have pulled out the tongue (of Jha) and thrown it towards the chair of the Rajya Sabha presiding officer,” as reported by The Indian Express.
JD(U) MLC and Rajput Leader Sanjay Singh said: “Rajput is like fire. No one should try to fan it.”
Meanwhile, RJD president and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday backed Jha’s statements.
“Manoj Jha is a scholarly person. What he has said is perfectly in order. He meant no insult to Rajputs/Thakurs or any other community,” asserted the OBC stalwart, as quoted by news agency PTI.
Prasad also asserted that “those people who are making noise about Manoj Jha’s statement are trying to galvanise support of members of their caste. They ought to refrain from doing so”.