Bhagwat endorsed my take on Ramcharitmanas, says Bihar edu minister amid BJP walkout
Chandrashekhar was responding to Opposition BJP’s demand to first tender an apology for making uncharitable remark about country’s cultural heritage before giving the government reply following a debate on the education department budget in Bihar Assembly.
Bihar’s education minister Chandrashekhar on Monday said whatever he had remarked about a shloka (verse) from the epic Ramcharitamanas, which the BJP leaders created a furore over, has been endorsed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat.
He was responding to Opposition BJP’s demand to first tender an apology for making uncharitable remark about country’s cultural heritage before giving the government reply following a debate on the education department budget in Bihar Assembly.
As the minister started his speech, BJP staged a walkout from the House.
The education department budget of ₹40,450 crore for fiscal 2023-24 was passed by voice vote in the absence of Opposition.
The minister, however, continued, citing the shloka from Ramcharitmanas and seeking to explain its literal meaning. He had brought into the House an old copy of the religious text, along with books like “Manusmriti” and Golwalkar’s “Bunch of Thoughts” and underlined the need to make an egalitarian society, in which the lower castes did not have to suffer.
Showing newspaper clips, Chandrashekhar, whose remarks on Ramcharitamanas earlier this year had triggered an outrage, said whatever he had mentioned as “demeaning for some castes in the religious text” was later endorsed by Bhagwat, who said, “To our maker, we are equal. There is no caste or sect. These differences were created by Pundits, which was wrong. Based on scriptures, they interpret things differently”.
The education minister further said if parts of religious texts were disparaging for some castes, they should be changed.
“The fact is that now education has made the society empowered to reply and question and that is what education is meant to be. It cannot remain confined to the society’s elites. As Nelson Mandela said, ‘education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. Truly, education is the only medium to reform and transform. It is a fact that in some parts, there is still discrimination against Dalits. Even a Dalit President or CM visiting a temple has to face harassment. It’s a reality even today. Even today, Dalits cannot keep moustache or ride a horse for wedding. That is not the society Bapu or Ambedkar dreamt of,” he said.
Chandrashekhar said that the Bihar government has laid a lot of emphasis on education, especially for the socially and economically deprived sections, and a number of initiatives have been launched for them. “The government spends 22% of the budget on education sector alone. New initiatives have been launched to boost creativity among students and focus on quality education. The drop-out rate at the primary level has reached zero for the last two years,” he said.
The minister announced that Bihar has plans to set up a school like Simutalla Awasiya Vidyalay (SAV) in every district and experienced teachers and academicians involved with the SAV since its inception would be roped in to make it happen. “Besides, 85 higher secondary schools with adequate resources are being identified for development as model schools,” he added.
The minister said that the government was also working on over 2.5 lakh appointments, including 1.30 lakh in secondary and higher secondary schools. “The rules for school teachers’ appointment has been changed to usher in greater transparency and remove chances of corruption. The appointment process in universities and colleges has been stopped due to court order. We are trying to find a way,” he said.
He said the government was working on making quality education accessible to all despite problems due to delayed and low funding under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).
