Lagatar24 Desk
Patna, Jan 12: Chandrashekhar, the education minister for Bihar, stirred up controversy on Wednesday by saying that texts like the Ramcharitmanas, a Hindu sacred text based on the Ramayana, propagate enmity in the same way that ‘Manusmriti’ and MS Golwalkar’s ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ divided society.
At the time of his comments, Chandrashekhar was speaking at the Nalanda Open University’s commencement ceremony. Phagu Chouhan, the governor of Bihar, was also present.
“A nation becomes great with love and affection. Books like Ramcharitmanas, Manusmriti and Bunch of Thoughts sowed the seeds of hatred and social divide. This is the reason why people burnt Manusmriti and took exception to a portion of Ramcharitmanas, which talks against education for Dalits, backwards and women,” he said.
Reacting to this, BJP OBC Morcha’s national general secretary and state BJP spokesperson Dr Nikhil Anand said, “It is most surprising that the education minister, while speaking at a university convocation, flaunted his silly opinion based on religious hatred. Basically, the RJD is doing politics of Muslim appeasement and that is reflected through such remarks.”