Ramcharitmanas spreads hatred just like Golwalkar’s ‘Bunch of Thoughts’: Bihar Minister

Bihar Education Minister Chandra Sekhar on Wednesday raked up a controversy by calling Ramcharitmanas written by 16th century Bhakti poet Tulsidas, “an epic that spreads hatred”. He said the book was in the same league as Manusmirit and ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ written by RSS leader MS Golwalkar.

“These epics that spread hatred have come in every age. First there was Manusmriti, then there was Ramcharitmanas, and after that there was Golwalkar’s Bunch of thoughts. These books divide our society on hatred,” Sekhar said while interacting with the media during the Graduation ceremony of Nalanda Open University on Wednesday.

Explaining why he feels that Ramcharitmanas spreads hatred and divides society, he said, “The epic has verses in which its written that if Adham or neech (backward communities) jaati gets educated, they become poisonous, just like a snake becomes poisonous on consuming milk.”

He said that he was not the only one to bring out these references from Ramcharitmanas. “Babasaheb Ambedkar quoted the same facts and exposed it to the whole world,” he said.

“Manusmriti was burnt because it abused a huge chunk of our population, 85 percent of our population.” he added.

Reacting to his statement, BJP BJP General Secretary Devesh Kumar tweeted, “Can RJD leaders give such statements about someone else’s scripture? After all, why do RJD people always give malicious statements about the religious scriptures and deities of Hindus? Do they have to say this again and again to please their vote bank?”

Ramcharitmanas, is an epic poem in the Awadhi language, based on the Ramayana, and composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Tulsidas. This work is also called, in popular parlance, Tulsi Ramayana. Bunch of Thoughts is a compilation of speeches of Golwalkar, the second sarsanghchalak (head) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.