Mahabharat, Ramayna are full of incidents of violence: Yechury
May 03, 2019 15:13
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party for fragmenting the society for votes through its divisive policies.
The leader went on to brand religious epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as specimens of Hindu violence.
"Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur said that Hindus don't believe in violence. Many kings and principalities have fought battles in the country. Even the Ramayana and Mahabharata are also filled with instances of violence. Being a pracharak, you narrate the epics but still claim Hindus can't be violent? What is the logic behind saying there is a religion which engages in violence and we Hindus don't," he said.
"After the initial phases of election got over, they came back to the core Hindutva agenda -- Aboloition of Article 35A and 370, Construction of Ram Mandir on the disputed sight, Uniform Civil Code and NRC. On the back of such issues, the decision to bring in Sadhvi Pragya Thakur to contest from Bhopal after the third phase is a step taken based on hyping up the sentiments of the people," added Yechury.
Yechury recounted the non-violent traditions of the country citing the Maurya Empire's acceptance of the Buddhist philosophy.
"The Mauryan empire accepted Buddhism after the Battle of Kalinga. Ashoka's edicts state that any one who attacks other communities, damages his own community. Our tradition is this and not the one propogated by BJP," said the CPM leader.
Yechury elaborated in detail the Hindutva design and its genesis by recounting instances from history.
"Vinayak Damodar Savarkar has himself said that Hindutva has no relation with Hinduism. It is a political project. His slogan was 'Hinduize the Military and Militarize the Hindus'. He encouraged the Hindu youth to join the military. This was the way how Hindus were organized into RSS. The person who got inspired by this philosophy was Balakrishna Shivram Moonje. He went to Italy and got inspired by Mussolini. He came back and opened a military academy which inspired the later day Hindu nationalists," he said.
"So, it is a fallacy to say that Hindus can't engage in violence as historicity doesn't verify this claim. All the private armies that have been built in the name of moral policing are based on this philosophy," he contended.
Speaking on the BJP government's failings in the present regime, Yechury said, "according to the reports that have come in, there is not one institution left which the BJP is not using to propogate its political power. These attacks on the institution are not just limited to violating people's democratic rights. We fought against the emergency to save our democracy. This is a combined attack on our democratic setup." -- ANI
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