As Congress was being slammed by BJP and netizens on social media for Shivraj Patil’s remarks comparing Krishna’s advice to Arjuna chronicled in Gita with Jihad described in Quran, Jairam Ramesh, who is the party’s General Secretary in-charge Communications, tweeted that the comments ‘reportedly’ made by Patil are unacceptable.
After former Home Minister and senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil triggered a massive controversy by saying that the Mahabharata war and jihad are the same, the party has now attempted damage control by trying to distance itself from the controversial comments. Reacting to the controversy, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Pati’s remarks are ‘unacceptable’.
Ramesh added that the stand of Congress is very clear in this issue, that Bhagavad Gita is a key foundational pillar of Indian civilisation. The Rajya Sabha MP also included an excerpt from Discovery of India authored by Jawaharlal Nehru that talks about the message of Gita.
The first PM of India wrote in the book, “The message of the Gita is not sectarian or addressed to any particular school of thought. It is universal in its approach for everyone, Brahmin or outcaste. ‘All paths lead to me,’ it says. It is because of this universality that it has found favour with all classes and schools.”
Jairam Ramesh further tweeted that he learned Bhagavad Gita in his early teens and has had a “life-long fascination with it as a cultural & philosophical text, with a profound influence on Indian society over the ages.” He added that he has written about it in his book titled The Light of Asia: The Poem that defined the Buddha.
Yesterday, Shivraj Patil created controversy by saying that ‘Jihad’ is a part of the Bhagavad Gita and that it was taught to Arjuna by Lord Krishna. “The concept of Jihad is not limited to the Quran but also the Bhagavad Gita, which is a part of Mahabharata,” he had said, adding that Lord Krishna taught about Jihad to Arjuna before the Kurukshetra war, when Arjuna was refusing to take part in the war.
Shivraj Patil added that Jihad exists not only in Hinduism and Islam but also in other religions like Christianity. After his comments triggered massive outrage, he tried to control the damage by claiming that use of force is not right.
However, today he proceeded to make more outlandish comments on religion, and tried to Abrahamise Hinduism. He said that he made the comments after reading the Quran, and suggested that the Dharmic concept of the supreme God is same as the existence of only a single God believed in monotheistic religions like Islam and Christianity. He also said that the description of God in Gita is same the description of God in Abrahamic faiths by saying, “They (Abrahamic religions) say that God exists but cannot be made into an idol. Even Bhagavad Gita says that Hindu deities do not have form, shape and cannot be re-made in the form of an idol”.
However, after the massive outrage over his comments, now the Congress party has distanced itself from them.