Escalating the controversy over the controversial remarks by Swami Prasad Maurya’s remarks on Ramcharitmanas, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the BJP considers him a “low-caste ‘Shudra’”. He also alleged that the BJP sent its goons to prevent him from attending religious ceremony ‘Mahayagya’, organized on the banks of the Gomti river on Saturday.
“For the BJP, we are ‘Shudras’. They are indulging in discrimination. The BJP may face a similar situation when they will be voted out of power. Even today, some people want to deprive others of their right to enter temples. It’s a fact that whoever prevents anybody from entering temples is a ‘vidharmi’ for creating obstacles in the path of ‘dharma’”, Akhilesh said here on Saturday. He had gone to Daliganj to attend the ‘108th Mahayagya’ on the banks of the Gomti river on Saturday.
“My security was scaled down and national security guards commandos were withdrawn. Today, I have realised the reason behind the withdrawal of my security cover’’, said Akhilesh after being shown black flags by the workers of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, on Saturday. The BJP, however, denied that they were their workers. The protesting youths also raised slogans denouncing Akhilesh.
“The BJP is against the idea of us participating in the ‘Mahayagya’ as they consider us ‘Shudras’ and that is why they had sent their goons,” Akhilesh alleged.
“The BJP is irked whenever I attend a religious event. The BJP and RSS are two sides of the same coin and the organisers of the ‘Mahayagya’ are being threatened by the BJP for inviting me to take part in the ‘Mahayagya’’’, Akhilesh said.
The SP chief alleged that the BJP is indulging in discrimination as they have failed to address the basic issues facing the common man.
Maurya had triggered a controversy by his remarks on certain verses in Ramcharitmanas. The SP leader was at the centre of a row recently for alleging that certain verses of the Ramcharitmanas were an ‘insult’ to a large section of society on the basis of caste, and hence the same should be banned.
On Friday, Maurya had tweeted: “Based on the statement given by me recently, some religious contractors have declared a reward for those who cut my tongue and head. If someone else had said the same thing, they would have termed him a terrorist.”
