Bihar Education minister Chandrashekhar appeared unapologetic over his controversial remark on Tuesday, claiming that the Ramcharitmanas, a poem based on the Hindu epic Ramayan, and the Manusmriti, “spread hatred in society”. The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, when asked if he would apologise for his statement, said there was no question of doing so.
The BJP, the opposition party in Bihar, has demanded that the minister apologise for his remarks against Hindu scriptures and wondered if the minister’s statement was a reflection of the official stand of the RJD on the matter. Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand demanded that Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav must apologise for the statement by his party leader. “The RJD is practising politics of Muslim appeasement. They can stoop to any level to get votes,” he added.
Reacting to the BJP’s demand, the minister reiterated his stand and said that the BJP should instead apologise for being ignorant of facts. Addressing students at the 15th convocation ceremony of Nalanda Open University on Wednesday, Chandrashekhar claimed that “books like Ramcharitmanas, Manusmriti and Bunch of Thoughts by MS Golwalkar” were responsible for “spreading hatred” in three different eras.
This, he said, was the reason why Ambedkar was opposed to these books. “The Ramcharitmanas talks against imparting education to people from lower castes saying they will become poisonous after getting an education like snakes do after consuming milk,” Chandrashekhar had said at the event.
When questioned by the media over the remarks by the state Education minister, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar evaded controversy, saying he is not aware of the minister’s statement. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
The remarks by Chandrashekhar follow a similar take by CM Jitan Ram Manjhi who had questioned the existence of Lord Ram, describing him as a fictional character. “Ram was not a God. I don’t believe in Ram. He is a fictional character created by Valmiki and Tulsidas to send across the message thay they wanted to convey,” the former CM had said.
Earlier this month, Kerala minister MB Rajesh made a similar statement about Manusmriti, claiming that it advocates a ‘cruel’ caste system.