Ramcharitmanas row: Some people insulting India’s heritage, Lord Ram, says Adityanath

Lucknow, Mar 2 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said it seems some people have it in their values to “insult” the country’s heritage, weeks after a leader from the Opposition Samajwadi Party made controversial remarks about the Ramcharitmanas.

“It may be in their values that they insult heritage. They even did not spare Lord Ram… the type of comments which were made on great Sant Tulsidas,” he said.

In January, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya had alleged that certain portions of the Ramcharitmanas — a popular version of the Ramayana penned by poet Tulsidas — “insult” a large section of society on the basis of caste and said these should be “banned”.

“The country and the world is attracted towards his legacy (Tulsidas). When he was writing Ramcharitmanas, his ‘pothi’ (notebook) used to be stolen. But, however, bad the problem is, no one can do anything to those who have God with them,” Adityanath said.

He said the Ramchartimanas used to guide the country and freed the country from “slavery”. “(Mughal emperor) Akbar had called Tulsidas to his ‘darbar’ but he refused saying he has only one ‘raja’ and that is Lord Ram. Such courage was shown by Tulsidas,” Adityanath said.

“Who are these people who are insulting heritage, and there is a need to identify them. People who insulted Lord Ram in Uttar Pradesh know where the public has sent them. Those who used to say that even ‘parinda par nahi maar sakta’ (a bird cannot reach there)… now a grand temple of Lord Ram is being built there (Ayodhya). When Ramlalla will be installed in this temple in January 2024, not only India, the whole world will be proud. We all should feel proud of Lord Ram’s legacy,” he said.

During the Ram temple movement, SP founder, the late, Maulayam Singh Yadav had made a statement that in Ayodhya “parinda bhi par nahi maar sakta”.