The offbeat interpretation of Lord Krishna’s sermons in ‘Bhagawad Gita’ by senior Congress leader and former Home Minister Shivraj Patil suggesting that Lord Krishna also taught lessons of ‘Jihad’ to Arjuna in Mahabharata and drawing a parallel to ‘Quran’s preaching prompted the BJP on Friday to put the Opposition party on the mat.
A sheepish Congress described Patil’s comments as “unacceptable” and brought forth Jawaharlal Nehru’s views to clarify the party’s stand on the issue. Patil, for his part, sought to clarify which only turned out to be a confusion worse confounded.
Patil, who was union home minster from 2004 to 2008, took an ‘unconventional view’ of the time-honoured ‘Gyan’ of ‘Gita’ at a book launch of Congress veteran Mohsina Kidwai’s biography here on Thursday saying Lord Krishna also taught lessons of ‘jihad’ to Arjuna in Gita in the Mahabharata. “It’s said there is a lot of discussion on Jihad in Islam religion. Even after all efforts, if someone doesn’t understand clean ideas, then power can be used. It is not just in the Quran Sharif, but also in the Mahabharata of which Gita is a part,” Patil said about the book which speaks of universal oneness with no divide.
The BJP lost no opportunity to embarrass the opposition party latching on to the comments of Patil who was for long lying low, away from the public view. BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi demanded that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge or its leader Sonia Gandhi should respond to Patil’s comments. “What Shivraj Patil said is a symbol of their party’s perverse & disgusting mindset”, he said.
Recalling views of pre-independence Congress stalwarts, Trivedi noted that Mahatma Gandhi in his commentary on the Hindu epic had described it as a source of ‘Anasakti Yoga’ (selfless action) while Bal Gangadhar Tilak expounded his philosophy of ‘Karma Yoga’ through his study of Gita and added that Congress leaders now see ‘jihad’ in it.
BJP national spokesperson Prem Shukla alleged that the Congress has long been involved in the conspiracy to "insult Hindu, Hindutva and Hindustan" and Patil’s remarks are yet another chapter towards this.
Former Union ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and P Chidambaram had spoken about "saffron terror", he said. Shukla accused Congress of playing vote bank politics and asserted its leaders in the past have drawn a parallel between Hindutva with terror organisations like Boko Haram and Taliban.
On the backfoot, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to give the party’s official view and said, “The Congress’s stand is clear. Bhagavad Gita is a key foundational pillar of Indian civilization. My senior colleague Shivraj Patil reportedly made some comments on Bhagavad Gita that’s unacceptable," he said.
He shared on Twitter excerpts from Jawaharlal Nehru’s book ‘The Discovery of India’, wherein the first prime minister wrote: "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." Patil later sought to clarify. "Will you call Krishna’s lessons to Arjun jihad? No. That’s what I was saying," Patil can be seen clarifying in a video released by news agency ANI, after scolding the reporters."This jihad’s message is what you are saying," he said and then stopped a journalist who asked a question.
He sought to explain what jihad is according to the Hindu religion and said killing Mahatma Gandhi will be considered jihad.