Rationalist K.S. Bhagwan, who wrote that Lord Ram drank intoxicants and made Sita consume them too, Monday defended his new book in a video message.
Bengaluru: Mysuru-based rationalist K.S. Bhagwan has triggered fresh fury among Hindu fundamentalists with his statements that Lord Ram drank “intoxicants” and made Sita consume them too, and that they were meat-eaters.
A week after a complaint filed by them got Bhagwan booked for hurting religious sentiments, members of a fringe group called Hindu Jagran Vedike again approached police in Mysuru Monday to demand action against him.
The group has also sought a ban on the book in which Bhagwan has made these remarks, Rama Mandira Yeke Beda (Why Ram Mandir is not needed), as well as his arrest.
Bhagwan, who attributes his understanding of Ram to the Valmiki Ramayan, wrote in the book, “Like Devendra made his wife drink an intoxicant so did Rama [sic], with his own hands, make Sita drink. Their servants brought them meat and many varieties of fruits.”
Bhagwan has defended his book by terming it an interpretation of Valmiki’s Ramayan, saying it was his right to promote rationalism, reformism and scientific temper.
“No, I have not said that Ram is characterless,” Bhagwan said in a video message issued to journalists Monday, referring to the allegations against his book. “What I have said is that people call him purushottam (ideal man), but I have brought it to the attention of readers that it is not so in the Valmiki Ramayan,” he added.
He said that, according to Valmiki’s version of the Ramayan, Ram was a protector of the four-fold caste system and worshipped Brahmins.
“He was serving the Brahmins and he only gave gifts to Brahmins, and not the farmers,” he added.
The rationalist, who arrived back in India Tuesday after a trip to Canada, has long been in the crosshairs of Hindu extremists for his views, and it was an alleged assassination plot against him that first led police to journalist Gauri Lankesh’s suspected killers.
The first accused arrested in the Lankesh case, K.T. Naveen Kumar, was allegedly caught for hatching a conspiracy to eliminate Bhagwan as part of a larger scheme to target rationalists.
Complaints against Bhagwan
In all, five complaints have been filed against Bhagwan over his book, including by Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader N. Ravi Kumar.
Talking to ThePrint, Jagdish Hebbar of Hindu Jagran Vedike pointed to the book’s purported portrayal of Ram as a womaniser and Mahatma Gandhi as a religious fanatic.
“He has also criticised Mahatma Gandhiji and this has affected Hindu beliefs and will hamper harmony in society,” he said. “We demand that the book be banned and Bhagwan arrested for trying to incite violence.”
Bhagwan has been slammed frequently by Hindu extremist outfits over the years for claiming that Ram was a human being with exceptionally positive attributes, and not a deity. He was even booked in 2015 for allegedly insulting the Mahabharata and Ramayan.
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