BJP MLA Mithilesh Kumar was seen distributing ‘Swords’ in the Sitamarhi constituency of Bihar during the Dussehra festivities.
The leader distributed swords and Ramayana amid local ‘pandals’ to equip them for ‘Hindutva Raksha’. Opposition leaders have openly slammed the act of instigating a majoritarian population against minority communities, but the MLA said that there is ‘nothing wrong’ and it’s a ‘historical tradition’.
Stirring up communal prejudices, the videos of Mithilesh Kumar have made several rounds on different social media platforms in which he is defining the reasons of distributing ‘Shastra’ (weapons) with ‘Shstra’ (religious scriptures) together. In the video MLA can be seen taking weapons out from his vehicle in Saffron dress, marigold garland, and a muffler with a bow printed on it in colour red.
‘All these scriptures, defense sciences, astronomy, geology, science and geography are Indian in their roots and belong to our nation. You also know that religious scriptures and weapons are ‘not a big deal’ for us,’ told Mithilesh, describing his purpose to a local reporter.
Quoting religious text he said that there are always some people in our society with ‘Asuri Pravritti’(devilious nature), therefore since old times we have been worshiping weapons every Durga Puja because it’s important for ‘Dharma-Raksha’.
‘There are around 72 stalls within my legislative territory and we have already covered around 42 places’, he replied without any mark of collective liability on his face.
New Directions For The ‘Pooja Samiti’
MLA has requested all the Durga-puja committees to recite the Ramayana out loud with weapons alongside and asked them to teach the new generation about Sanatani ways of living life that can elevate the global status of India.
‘In every Pooja Samiti, there should be holy reciting sessions of Ramanaya on a daily basis. In order to safeguard our Dharma, all the Puja-Pandals need to worship weapons’, he declared with pride.
Under the new directives, the Puja-committees, temples and random religious spots that fall under the constituency of MLA Mithilesh Kumar, have been requested to perform daily prayers and organise weekly sessions to revive Sanatani roots and restore the lost religious pride.
‘Violence Is Mandatory To Safeguard Religion’
Without justifying this act on a legal-rational roadmap, Mithilesh Kumar only provided the details of religious aspects and has not explained how the ‘sword distribution’ is good in current political situations when hate-crimes against minority communities are rising-up like never before.
‘What would I say? It’s written in the 16th chapter of the Mahabharata. Non-violence is the utmost profound thing but violence is also devout to safeguard religion,’ he said while quoting a Shloka (couplet) from Mahabharta.
‘It’s just my little contribution in the resolution of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India a developed country by the end of 2047’, he exclaimed.
RJD Boils, Opposition Reacts
The opposition parties have persistently been criticising the incident that can potentially disrupt the harmony between different religious communities.
RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari marked it as a mishap with ‘wrong and provocative signals’, on the other hand senior Congress leader Prem Chandra also slammed MLA’s step of spreading-up ferocity amid Hindu religious authorities.
‘So long as they had been distributing copies of Ramayana it was alright. But swords are an act of provocation’, he said.
‘To spread-up hate in society is the key purpose of Bhartiya Janta Party. They give pens to their children and swords to other children,’ responded an ex-MLA and RJD leader Sunil Kushwaha to a mainstream media channel.
JDU leader Rajiv Ranjan said that the matter needs proper investigation to check if these weapons are only symbolic or they can be used in real.
In contrast, the BJP has been advocating and backing these sword-distributions with several different pleas.
‘‘Shaastra’ and ‘Shstra’ go hand in hand in Sanatan religion’, reacted Union minister Giriraj Singh, showing support to the Sitamarhi MLA.
Meanwhile other parties neither clearly opposed nor directly supported him to play safe in politics and win the hearts of majoritarian throngs. However, sword-distribution during Durga-Puja has been seen as a ‘power-show’ of the ruling parties and the right-wing raft that intends to do the politics of religion.
‘Unrest’ After The Event
SP Manoj Tiwari has reported an atmosphere of ‘unrest’ in the constituency and called out for a detailed investigation to unveil and analyse the whole matter.
The case has been handed to an investigation without putting any preventive ban.
Investigation report is yet to come.
