Patna: With the debate around Sanatana Dharma heating up in the nation, the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar has faced another embarrassment from one of its ministers. The state’s education minister Chandra Shekhar Friday compared the Hindu scripture Ramcharitmanas to potassium cyanide, sparking an uproar.
The remark has drawn flak from the Opposition in the state which saw it as an insult to Sanatana Dharma (believed to be a set of duties incumbent upon all Hindus).
This is the second time in nine months that Chandra Shekhar, who belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has made such controversial remarks about Hindu scriptures — underlining the helplessness of a chief minister whose survival depends on alliance partners.
On Friday, Chandra Shekhar was speaking at an event organised by the Hindi Granth Academy, when he said Ramcharitmanas has elements that are like “potassium cyanide”.
“It is like serving a delicious dish 55 times and adding potassium cyanide to it,” he said.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reportedly attacked the government demanding the resignation of the minister and accused him of insulting the Sanatana Dharma.
“The education minister Chandra Shekhar himself is potassium cyanide in Bihar politics spreading hatred against the Sanatana Dharma. He is a part of the INDIA alliance that is out to finish off Sanatana Dharma and should be immediately sacked for his hate comments,” Samrat Choudhary, state BJP chief reportedly said Friday.
The leaders of the ruling RJD-JD(U) coalition have not done anything proactively about the statement. While CM Nitish Kumar could only advise the minister to refrain from making such statements, RJD chief Lalu Yadav did not show any signs of dropping Chandra Shekhar. Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav reportedly told the RJD legislators to focus on their work and not make such statements.
However, signs of discomfort within the coalition emerged after the issue. RJD leaders say that Chandra Shekhar is frustrated by his lack of authority in his department and, hence, tries to create controversies outside his domain. JD(U) leaders, on the other hand, suspect that Chandra Shekhar is being used by the RJD to publicly humiliate Nitish Kumar whenever they want to.
This is not the first time that the education minister has offended the sentiments of Hindus. On 13 January, while participating in the convocation of Nalanda Open University, he said that Manusmriti, Ramcharitmanas and RSS leader M.S. Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts are books that spread hatred in society.
“These books divide the nation with hatred,” he had said. Even then, the CM and his deputy had reacted the same way.
Some analysts believe that Chandra Shekhar’s statements are a reflection of caste politics in Bihar, where backward castes have challenged the dominance of upper castes.
“Caste is very strong in Bihar and it becomes stronger when efforts are made to break it like in the Jayaprakash Narayan-led agitation, where there was the burning of sacred thread. But caste came back with a bang,” said D.M. Diwakar, former director of A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies.
The joke now is that Chandra Shekhar should be made minister of Dharma since he has nothing to do in the education department, he told ThePrint.
“What I fail to understand is why the RJD allowed Chandra Shekhar to set an agenda which BJP specialises in?” Diwakar added.
Speaking to ThePrint, RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwari denied that Chandra Shekhar’s statements have anything to do with backward castes’ assertion or criticism of Hindu scriptures.
Discomfort within the alliance
Chandra Shekhar represents the Madhepura assembly seat, which is a stronghold of Yadav politics in Bihar. He became the education minister after the Grand Alliance came to power last year and the department went from JD(U) to RJD.
However, since June this year, he has been sidelined by IAS officer K.K. Pathak, who has taken charge of the department, said an RJD leader.
“Earlier, former Agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh used to make statements against the government on a regular basis. Later they had to let him go after Nitishji insisted on his sacking. Now, Chandra Shekhar and Sudhakar’s father Jagdanand Singh have taken his place and they issue these statements to put pressure on Nitishji”, said a JD(U) MLA on condition of anonymity.
“Chandra Shekhar has no other role in the ministry,” he added.
When asked if the party was against Sanatana Dharma, RJD’s vice-president Tiwari said, “Not at all. Then why is Lalu Prasad, who is the biggest leader of backward politics, visiting temples one after another? Laluji has brought social change. But he is a firm believer,” he told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, former MLC Prem Kumar Mani, one of Nitish’s key advisers when he became CM of Bihar in 2005, also advised that the alliance “should not use Sanatana Dharma as an issue to gain votes”.
“Religion is a matter of personal choice. Some backward castes may feel that their religion has some flaws. But they do not like it when their religion is insulted. They think that it is an insult to their ancestors. The alliance should not use Sanatana Dharma as an issue to gain votes,” he told ThePrint.
Highlighting the 2020 assembly elections, Mani said, the Grand Alliance in Bihar did very well when they focused on issues like unemployment and did not bring caste and religion into the picture.
“The population of backward castes in Bihar is 54 percent, which includes 8 percent Muslims belonging to backward castes. The actual Hindu backward castes are 46 percent. There is very little to suggest that they are less religious,” he added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)