On January 18, an old tweet from Bihar Education Minister Professor Chandra Shekhar who insulted Ramcharitmanas started making rounds on social media, where he peddled WhatsApp university-level ‘gyaan’. In a tweet from April 20, 2020, Shekhar claimed that there was no name of a “Sanghi” on India Gate, where thousands of names of martyrs were written.
He said, “Chronology of contribution of Sanghis and Manuwadis to the country – Among the 95,395 immortal martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the war against British whose named are inscribed on India Gate, Delhi, Muslims – 61,395, Sikh – 8,050, Backward – 14,480, Dalit – 10,777, Savarna 598, Sanghi – 00. Should we try finding Manuwadi Sanghi?”
Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar peddling Whatsapp University misinformation
The reality, however, is strikingly different from what Shekhar had claimed. There are no names of freedom fighters on India Gate. Instead, it has the names of the soldiers of the British Indian Army who died in the First World War (1914-18) and the Third-Anglo-Afghan war (1919). It is a war memorial that has the names of over 13,000 soldiers. It pays tribute to all the 70,000 soldiers of the “British Indian Army” who died in these two wars.
Notably, India Gate was built under the Imperial War Graves Commission, which was formed in December 1917. The foundation stone was laid on February 10, 1921. On February 2, 1931, India Gate was inaugurated, over 16 years before India became independent. There are no names of freedom fighters who fought the British. The claim of having names of over 61,000 Muslims, over 8,000 Sikhs, over 14,000 Backward and over 10,000 Dalits is fake.
Chandra Shekhar insults Ramcharitmanas
Bihar education minister Chandrashekhar had last week touched off a major controversy by saying that the Hindu scripture Ramcharitmanas should be burnt like Manusmriti because it promotes caste division in society. He made the comments during the 15th convocation ceremony of the Nalanda Open University in Patna.
During his speech event, Chandrashekhar claimed that books like Manusmriti, Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and Bunch of Thoughts by Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar worked towards keeping 85% of the population in the country backwards. He claimed that while Manusmriti abuses lower castes, Ramcharitmanas advocates keeping lower caste people illiterate.
He alleged that the three books, Manusmriti, Ramcharitmanas and Bunch of Thoughts have been spreading caste-related hatred in different eras.
