Bengaluru: The Bhagavad Gita has become the latest talking point for the BJP as well as the Congress in Karnataka, with both parties looking to score brownie points.
The discussion was triggered when the Gujarat government announced last week that it would introduce the scriptural text, which is a part of the epic Mahabharata, into its Class 6-12 syllabus.
Since then, BJP as well as Congress leaders in Karnataka have been tripping over themselves to declare their affinity for the Bhagavad Gita — never mind that an official proposal for the text to be introduced into Karnataka’s schools is nowhere on the horizon.
While BJP leaders like Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi immediately gave their stamp of approval for Karnataka to emulate Gujarat, the Congress has also grabbed the chance to claim credit for mainstreaming the Hindu epics.
“We are Hindus too. Leave alone Karnataka, Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister laid the foundation for Ramayana and Mahabharata to be mainstream across the country — for people of all ages and not just school children,” D.K. Shivakumar, president, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), told a press gathering Sunday.
This was a reference to the TV serial Ramayana first being telecast on Doordarshan when the Congress was in power at the Centre. Shivakumar also promptly followed his comment with a tweet.
Remembering those Sundays when every morning the nation used to be glued to their TVs, watching the epic Ramayana, aired for the first time during former PM Sh. Rajiv Gandhi's tenure. pic.twitter.com/q6JwD2RNL1
— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) March 20, 2022
This eagerness of the Congress to mark its affinity for the Hindu epics comes at a time when the party in Karnataka is taking up the Hinduism vs Hindutva debate ahead of the 2023 assembly election in the state, even as the BJP accuses it of being “anti-Hindu” on social media at every given opportunity, ranging from the hijab row to the anti-conversion bill to the anti-cattle slaughter law.
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Congress’ ‘pro-Hindu’ counter-narrative
The Congress has been struggling to build a narrative pitting Hindutva, which it equates with the “divisive agenda” of the BJP and the RSS, and Hinduism, which it defines as an inclusive and tolerant religion.
Not opposing the idea of the Bhagavad Gita being taught in schools, therefore, is being seen by the party as a chance for the party to prove its ‘pro-Hindu’ mindset.
For instance, Siddaramaiah, former CM and Leader of the Opposition of the Karnataka legislative assembly, was quick to proclaim that the Congress had no objection to the Bhagavad Gita being taught as part of the “moral science” curriculum in schools.
“I am a Hindu too, and I have been taught the Bhagavad Gita at home as well. The Ramayana is staged as plays in villages. There is a need for moral education,” Siddaramaiah said, adding, however, that such lessons “shouldn’t be violating the Constitution”.
“Whether they teach Bhagavad Gita or Bible or Quran, children should get quality education to make them competent in today’s market… We believe in according equal respect to all religions, whether it is Hinduism or Christianity or Islam or Sikhism or [Zoroastrianism], we respect them all equally,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Congress’ stand, political analysts believe, is a departure from the previous secular argument of excluding religion from aspects of political discourse.
“If the Congress wants the support of a section of Hindu religious institutions, it cannot take any stand other than this. At the crux of this stand is whether you believe Hindutva majoritarianism exerts a right over all cultures, including Hinduism, across the country or whether all cultures have a fixed space of which Congress looks to woo a section,” Prof. Narendar Pani, political analyst and dean at the School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, told The Print.
‘No move’ to introduce Bhagavad Gita in schools
While Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai made much of how the Bhagavad Gita would instil “moral values” in students, there has so far been no move in the direction of inserting it into syllabi in the near future.
“If not Bhagavad Gita, then what else will provide moral values? In this competitive world, students need moral education and the Gita will help them with it,” Bommai told reporters Saturday, adding that a decision on its introduction would be taken only after discussions.
The chief minister was backing Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh, who proposed introducing the text in moral science classes.
However, the following day, the state’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhu Swamy said that there was no proposal to introduce the Bhagavad Gita in schools.
“It has been clarified that there is no move to introduce Bhagavad Gita in school curriculum,” the minister said Sunday.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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