Bihar Education Minister stirs row, compares Ramcharitmanas to cyanide

Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar caused controversy by comparing Hindu scripture Ramcharitmanas to potassium cyanide. Opposition BJP slammed him, while ruling coalition distanced themselves. Chandra Shekhar had made similar statements in the past, which caused embarrassment to the coalition.

Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar courted controversy once more when he compared the Hindu scripture Ramcharitmanas with potassium cyanide.

“There are many great things in the Hindi scripture Ramcharitmanas but if you serve 55-kind of dishes and sprinkle potassium cyanide over it, would you eat it? Same is the case with scriptures of Hinduism,” Mr. Chandra Shekhar said in an event organised on Hindi Diwas (Hindi Day) on September 14. The video of his controversial statement, though, went viral on social media on Friday. 

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the State slammed Mr. Chandra Shekhar for his statement while, the ruling coalition Rashtriya Janata Dal and JD(U) leaders distanced themselves from what the minister has said.

Mr. Chandra Shekhar, who uses a mononym in the tradition of many socialists who dropped their surnames as means of rejecting caste identities within society, is a Rashtriya Janata Dal MA from Madhepura.

“My objection to Ramcharitmanas is firm and it will persist throughout my life. Even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has made comment on it,” he said in the viral video. The Education Minister also added that Hindi writers Baba Nagarjun and socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia have also criticised the Hindu epic.

The Minister had, in January this year, stoked a row over the Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas saying, “It is an epic which spreads hatred and foments tension in society.”

In February, he had said, “Whatever garbage is there in Ramcharitmanas has to be removed.” Both these events caused great embarrassment to the ruling grand alliance coalition partners.