The DMK in Tamil Nadu has the top rank when it comes to abusing Hindu Dharma and our deities. Now the RJD in Bihar is also vying for that top rank. And to top it off, the Ram Mandir Pran Prathishta seems to be causing a lot of heartburn in politicians from the Opposition.
Recently, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav made statements against the Ram Mandir consecration. In a video circulating on social media platform X, speaking at a public gathering, he said, “If you fall ill, you will go to the hospital, right? If you feel hungry, will you get food if you go to the temple? There they will instead ask for donations from you, you people will have to wake up. I am not questioning any religion. I have come here after getting my head shaved myself. Chhath Puja is celebrated at my house. God is in my heart. These people (BJP) say that they have brought saffron. There is saffron colour in our tricolour itself. And it is also green. But if you roam around with the green flag then they will say that look, it is creating hatred so that people keep fighting among themselves. How many people would have got jobs out of the lakhs and crores of rupees that were spent in Ayodhya? Would have got an education.”
Targeting PM Modi, he said, “Modi is a fake and adulterated man. It is a factory of lies. Why does Lord Ram need Modi ji? If Lord Ram wanted, wouldn’t he have built his own palace? But Modi is showing that he has built a house and palace for Lord Ram. This is all useless talk. Faith should be in the mind. The intention should be clear. If you keep committing sins and chanting Ram Ram, then Ram will not give blessings. We need to avoid riots.”
RJD members have a history of making such anti-Hindu statements and creating unnecessary controversy.
In November 2023, the same Tejashwi attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for being a CM who “only rings bells”. He had said, “We don’t want clashes and chaos. Now even the people of UP are saying that their CM is only ringing bells but they need to come to Bihar for jobs… All of you should not believe their false promises. Hunger cannot be satisfied with temples and mosques. These people pray for show-off…”
As recently as January 2024, a poster was put up on display outside the residence of Lalu-Rabri and their son Tejashwi Yadav in Patna by the party (Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The poster criticised temple worship, characterising it as a path of mental enslavement.
A few days ago, RJD MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh Kushwaha said, “It is written in your scripture that Surasati (Saraswati) is the daughter of Brahma and Brahma ji has given birth to his own daughter. The intention went wrong and he (Brahma) married her. You understand for yourself… Who is worshipped, the one with character or the one without character?”
He added, “I am not saying this about character and characterless, this is what Saint Kabirdas has said. I am saying what he said.”
RJD MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh in October 2023 said that Durga Devi is an imaginary character of a story. He said, “I admit to the existence of goddess Durga and 33 crore gods and goddesses in the country but when we became slaves, the population of the country was 30 crore.
I want to ask a question to those who have described that Mahisasur had crores of warriors. Still, goddess Durga killed him. If that is true then where was she when a handful of British made us slaves?”
“Devi Durga is an imaginary character of a story. She has no existence. She is a part of a fabricated story and has no truth,” Singh said while claiming that Mahisasur was his ancestor.
Fateh Bahadur Singh said that when British rulers attacked India, Durga who was considered a goddess of three Lok (Mrityu Lok or earth, Patal Lok, and Swarg Lok) “then why did she not save us”?
“Organising Durga Puja event is just a wasteful expenditure. As per Valmiki Ramayan, Gautam Budh was the first to come here, and then Lord Ram. We also have objections over Lord Shiva and goddess Durga,” Singh said.
In January 2023, RJD MLA Chandrashekhar Yadav spewed venom by saying, “Manusmriti, Ramcharitmanas and M.S. Golwarkar’s Bunch of Thoughts spreads hatred in the society”. He also added, “People have burnt Manusmriti in the past. In Manusmriti, it has abused 85 percent of the people of the society,” he alleged without any basis in fact.
“In Ramcharitmanas, people of the lower castes have no right to education. It was pointed out that lower caste people after getting an education become poisonous similar to snakes which become more poisonous after drinking milk. They are pronounced with the word ‘Adham Jaat’ (Lower castes),” he added, displaying his ignorance of the sacred text and Hindu Dharma.
The I.N.D.I. Alliance members seem to compete as to who spews more venom and the worst vitriol against the Hindu Samaj and Hindu Dharma. The run-up to the elections will probably show the ugliest side of these politicians when it comes to proving who is the most “secular” or in their words, anti-Hindu.
It is suggested that this shift towards an anti-Hindu narrative setting can be attributed to Professor Dilip Mandal, a member of the Editor Guild, propagator of Periyarist ideas who often writes for leftist portals such as EPW, The Print, BBC, and Quint. It has been quite a while since he has been posting pro-TN, pro-EVR/Dravidianist ideologies on his X handle, praising the Dravidian ideologue and furthering the caste propaganda in the north of Bharat, too. Has it caused this shift in politicians? We are not sure yet, but being a professor, he surely has access to students who can be easily convinced.
