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Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya says RSS chief’s remarks like ‘guidance for us’
Keshav Prasad Maurya also says the issue of implementing the uniform civil code has been part of the BJP agenda and the party has always contested elections on it
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Monday said Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on the caste system in Hindu society were like “guidance for us.”
Maurya’s comment came after Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya claimed that Bhagwat’s remark on “caste system being due to pandits (Brahmins)” was an admission of caste-based discrimination propagated by religious texts.
On the other hand, some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders later said that RSS chief never mentioned Brahmins were responsible for caste hierarchy.
They said in his speech, the RSS chief had said that all people were equal and dividing them on the basis of their caste was wrong. Reacting to a video shared by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, in which he is hearing devotional songs of Lord Krishna, Keshav Prasad Maurya said, “After 2014, Akhileshji has started hearing devotional songs and begun visiting temples.”
The deputy chief minister felt that the SP would not gain politically in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Keshav Prasad Maurya also said the issue of implementing the uniform civil code (UCC) was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) agenda, one on which the party has always contested elections.
“UCC, along with Ram temple and scrapping of Article 370, had been part of our long-standing agenda,” he said in an apparent rebuff to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), which, during its Lucknow meet on Sunday, had advocated against rollout of UCC.
“We have contested elections on all our core issues, including UCC, and people have voted us to power on those issues. Now, the country’s Parliament doesn’t need any permission from AIMPLB on that,” Maurya said.
“Ram temple is taking shape, Article 370 has been scrapped and the issue of UCC, too, is under active consideration,” he added.
Ayodhya-based former plaintiff in the Babri mosque demolition case Iqbal Ansari. too. has backed the demand for UCC.
“I think be it priests or saints or commoners like us, all want a common law that treats everyone equally. I think there is nothing wrong in UCC. It will be in everyone’s interest that the country is governed by common law that looks at all religions equally,” Ansari told media in Ayodhya.
