Bihar Education Minister Chandrashekhar Yadav opined that Islam was the only religion giving the message of love and honesty. Yadav belongs to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) which is known for its Hinduphobia and its appeasement policy.
However, following the Ramcharitmanas row when a reporter asked him about the Quran, the minister said he hasn’t read the Islamic text claiming he was a ‘Hindu’. “I have not read Kuran. I am a Hindu and much more Hindu than any thekedar (Contractors) of Hindus”, the minister said.
BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand slammed the minister for his remarks adding that he made the comments to appease Muslims.”The Education Minister made the remarks to appease Muslims under the agenda of RJD’s appeasement politics! ‘Mr maloom nahi chief minister’, why are you silent on the cabinet minister’s statement?” questioned Anand.
Earlier, he had bared his anti-Hindu fangs by saying Goswami Tulsidasji’s Ramcharitmanas should be burnt as it ‘promoted hatred’ for lower castes. Yadav claimed books such as Manusmriti, Ramcharitmanas by Goswami Tulsidas and Bunch of Thoughts by Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar worked towards keeping a majority of the population backwards.
Speaking at the event, Yadav claimed 85 per cent of the population has been kept backwards due to these books. He further remarked that Manusmriti abuses lower castes and Ramcharitmanas advocates that they be kept illiterate. He made the comments while speaking at Patna’s Nalanda Open University’s Fifteenth convocation ceremony.
The minister said the Ramcharitmanas verse “Adham jati me vidya paye, bhayatu yatha dudh pilaye” means “Lower caste people become poisonous after getting education like snake becomes after drinking milk”. However, this is a misinterpretation because the actual translation of the verse is “like a snake feels happy after drinking milk, the speaker (referring to himself) becomes happy on obtaining education”.
Yadav demanded the burning of Ramcharitmanas saying it prevents Dalits, lower castes and women from getting an education. He repeated his opinion to the reporters present at the venue after the event. “Manusmriti laid the seeds of hatred after that Ramcharitmanas helped to grow it, and now Golwalkar’s book is expanding it. Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti because it talks about depriving Dalits of rights. Similarly, Ramcharitmanas also has several such verses”, he told the reporters.
For all his claims of being a true Hindu, Yadav’s views on Ramcharitmanas and Quran are proof of his minority appeasement and Hindudevshi politics. While he was all praises for Islam, why did he insult and demean Ramcharitmanas, a Grantha that helped Hindus during the Islamic rule as well as when missionaries were actively converting Hindus in village after village? This very power of respected Ramcharitmanas made it the target of the missionaries first and later of those who wanted to do their petty politics by dividing Hindus.
RJD backed the comments of Yadav while BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) demanded his resignation for hurting Hindu sentiments. BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey recited Ramcharitmanas as a mark of protest against the state Education Minister’s remark on the holy Grantha.
Hindu Dharma and Granthas are repeatedly attacked but since there is a danger of being beheaded on charges of sacrilege/blasphemy if anything is said or written about texts of other religions, politicians like Yadav maintain a convenient silence about them while taking undue advantage of tolerance of Hindus.
If he has not read Quran, then on what basis does he proclaim that Islam is X or Y? Islam = Quran + Hadith. I hardly think he has read (or even heard) of Hadith, and he himself admits never having read Quran. So that means he knows nothing about Islam. Then why is he proclaiming it a religion of love? It is as ridiculous as Bush proclaiming it a religion of peace.
As for some Hindu texts, their content can be critiqued, and in any case those are not the core revealed (Sruti) texts of Hindu Dharm. We Hindus are not bound by what they say, nor do we claim their infallibility. We are aware that many of those have been interpolated, and we are open minded enough to, therefore, use them carefully. Speaking for myself, I do not regard the Uttara Kand as part of the original Valmiki Ramayana (and neither do most scholars, since the style of Sanskrit is different), and so for me, Ramayana ends at Yuddha Kand. Can any Muslim do that with Quran? Can any Muslim say he does not accept Quran 9.5 since it simply says all Mushriks must be killed? No. Quran and Hadith have to be accepted 100% otherwise one becomes a Kafir. We Hindus do not have that problem. Because of that, you cannot take X verse in some text, and label all of Hinduism in any way. Hinduism is not canonised in the same way that the Abrahamic religions are. In those religions, since ONE book is regarded literally as “word of God”, if you have any issue with that book, you are still unable to reject it. No Hindu text has that problem (maybe the Veda Samhita does, but that is not fully understood anyway). Whatever is written in Ramcharitmanas is the word of Tulsidasji, which no one has ever claimed is the same as the word of God. Take what you think is good, and use your conscience. Many things change with times, and Hinduism accepts that. Islam doesn’t.