SP Maurya: No religion called ‘Hindu’, it’s a hoax

His remarks sparked a row among social media users, with a section counterattacking him and charging him of spreading hatred

Samajwadi Party (SP) general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya, who has been stoking controversies through his remarks, has now targeted Brahmanism and Hinduism.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya (HT File Photo)

In December-January, this year, Maurya had courted controversy with repeated remarks on ‘Ramcharitmans’ and then recently called ‘Badrinath and Kedarnath, originally Buddhist monasteries’. Now, he has attacked ‘Brahmanism’ and called Hinduism “deceitful” and “a hoax”.

Posting a video on X of a speech he made at an event in Lucknow on Sunday, Maurya wrote: “The roots of Brahminism are very deep and the reason behind all the disparity is also Brahminism. There is no religion called Hindu, Hinduism is just a hoax. There is a conspiracy to trap Dalits, tribals and backward people of this country by calling the same Brahmin religion as Hindu religion. If there was a Hindu religion then tribals, Dalits, and backward people would have been respected but what an irony...”

His remarks sparked a row among social media users, with a section counterattacking him and charging him of spreading hatred.

Swami Prasad Maurya, the minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, had joined the SP ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls after resigning from the BJP and the minister’s post. Before being a BJP minister in the Yogi government, Maurya had also been a minister in the Mayawati government.

In January-end this year, Maurya had said that Ramcharitmanas, written by Tulsidas, used derogatory language against backwards, Dalits, tribals, and women. And recently over the issue of a survey of Gyanvapi in Varanasi, Maurya had that the Badrinath Dhaam and Kedarnath Dhaam were originally Buddhist monasteries and had remarked: “If the BJP tries to find a temple in every mosque, it would cost them dearly. If they try to find a temple in every mosque, then people too will begin to find a Buddhist monastery in every temple”.

SP secretary, Rajendra Chaudhary, when asked about Swami Prasad Maurya’s fresh comments, said: “They are his own comments, made in a personal capacity”.