In a last-ditch attempt to woo Hindu votaries of Delhi, the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party brought up a Hindu card to take a sly dig at their ideological opponents-BJP. Grossly misquoting the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, a timorous Kejriwal today said that it is written in Gita that a true Hindu is brave and never runs away from the field. Kejriwal stated that he had challenged Amit Shah for an open debate but the latter “ran away from the battlefield’.
“गीता में लिखा है कि एक सच्चा हिन्दू बहादुर होता है वो कभी मैदान छोड़कर भागता नहीं।
मैंने @AmitShah को open debate की चुनौती दी लेकिन वो मैदान छोड़कर भाग गए” –@ArvindKejriwal pic.twitter.com/40Crlb7dRP
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) February 6, 2020
There are two aspects of the assertions made by Kejriwal which unfailingly prove that the Aam Aadmi Party chief has scant knowledge about Hinduism and its hallowed Gods. The first one is regarding the veracity of the claim Kejriwal made while adducing Bhagavat Gita.
Lord Krishna to Arvind Kejriwal- “Fool, I have not used the word ‘Hindu’ in Gita at all.
Which Aaptard version of distorted Gita are you reading?
And what is this rant about ‘leaving battlefield’? Had I not taught strategic retreat, I would not have been called Ranchod” https://t.co/fyMnrSl7dD
— True Indology (@TIinExile) February 7, 2020
Throughout the 700 Sanskrit verses in Bhagavad Gita, the word “Hindu” has not been used anywhere. The Gita, and other ancient Hindu scriptures, talk about Dharma, but they do not mention the word Hindu, as this name was given much later to the Sanatan Dharma.
The Hindu scripture of Bhagavad Gita serves as a window for humanity into a life based on faith and devotion. It serves as a perfect guide for those racked with moral dilemmas and provides a vast array of philosophical insights into various strands of the materialistic world. However, such a spiritually edifying scripture was distorted by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for scoring political brownie points.
The other aspect of Kejriwal’s assertions proves that the AAP party chief is oblivious of the teachings of Gita as he claims that Gita forbids one to retreat from war. Among many reasons for which Lord Krishna was famous, one of them was that he was a master war-strategist. In Gujarat, Lord Krishna is revered as “Ranchod”, for his strategic retreat from Mathura to Dwarka and saving the lives of Mathura residents. Ran means battlefield and chod means abandon, and Ranchod means one who had abandoned the battlefield.
Krishna’s enemy Jarasandha had taken a vow to destroy Mathura a nd decimate Yadav clan. It is then that Lord Krishna decided to shift his capital from Mathura to Dwarka, saving his people from the impending catastrophe while earning the title of “Ranchod”. Jarasandha was eventually killed by Bheema during the great war of Kuruskhetra. This episode between Lord Krishna and his enemy Jarasandha reinforces the belief that the conventional way is not always the right option, sometimes one has to step back to defeat the crisis. A temple is also dedicated to “Ranchhodrai” i.e Lord Krishna in the Dakor town of Gujarat.
