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Yogi Adityanath says Samajwadi Party insulting Hindus by raking up Ramcharitmanas issue
Samajwadi Party deliberately sparked the Ramcharitmanas controversy before Global Investors Summit, says Yogi Adityanath
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday targeted the Samajwadi Party (SP) for “deliberately” raising a controversy over a verse of the Ramcharitmanas when the state government was preparing to host the UP Global Investors Summit-2023 that attracted investment of ₹33.50 lakh crore in Uttar Pradesh.
“Some issues were raised deliberately. When the Uttar Pradesh teams comprising ministers and officers were going to hold international and domestic roadshows, the Samajwadi Party raised the issue about a verse of Ramcharitmanas,” Yogi said in the state assembly on Saturday. He was speaking on the motion of thanks to governor’s address given before the two Houses of the state legislature here on Monday. Ramcharitmanas is an epic poem (based on the Ramayan) in Awadhi by the 16th century poet Goswami Tulsidas.
Yogi said by raising a controversy over the Ramcharitmanas verse, the Samajwadi Party was insulting the Hindus.
He read out the “controversial” verse “Dhol Ganwar Shudra Pashu Nari, Sakal Tadan Ke Adhikari” from the Sundar Kand of the Ramcharitmanas to make his point and said Goswami Tulsidas had written the epic poem in the Awadhi language. He used a sentence in Awadhi “Aitni der se inka tadat raha” (have been looking at him for such a long time) and said this indicated that the “tadan” meant to see. He said Tulsidas was born in Rajapur village of Bundelkhand. The chief minister used a sentence of the Bundelkhandi dialect, “Bhaiya more larkan ko taade rakkhiyo” (Brother, take care of my boys) to make his point that “tadan” meant to take care or educate in Bundelkhandi.
“But the SP’s office has launched a movement against Goswami Tulsidas,” said Yogi while referring to incidents of what he called showing disrespect to Ramcharitmanas at many places.
Yogi said the verse has been attributed to Samudra (lord of the sea) when Lord Ram was given bow and arrow by his younger brother Laxman to warn Samudra for not giving way.
He said “dhol” refers to an instrument and “ganwar” refers to the uneducated.
The chief minister said Shudra refers to working class and is not linked to any caste while ‘nari’ in the verse meant women power or mother power. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar had also said that the Dalits should not be called Shudras, the chief minister said.
“But you insulted Ambedkar as well by declaring that the Ambedkar memorials will be renamed and used as marriage halls,” he said. Yogi said everybody was aware of the status of women when this epic was written and child marriages were also taking place earlier.
Intead of taking pride in the fact that Uttar Pradesh was the land of Lord Ram, Lord Krishna and the Sangam, the SP leaders were insulting the Hindus. “What would have happened if such an act had been done with any other religion? Is everybody free to insult Hindus and interpret the religious scriptures? You want to insult the whole society,” said chief minister.
He referred to his visit to Mauritius a few years ago and said the ancestors of those called Girmitiyas there preserved the copies of Ramcharitmanas with them 175 year ago.
He also referred to the cricket match played by the CM’s XI and IAS XI during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure as chief minister and said the SP leaders had been playing many games.
He listed some of the alleged ‘scams’ (irregularities) reported during the tenure of the SP government to make his point and asked, “Have you not seen any change in perception about Uttar Pradesh?”
