BJP attempt to paint Pawar anti-Hindu backfires

May 13, 2022 00:57

A day after the Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party tweeted an edited video of his speech and accused him of being a Hindu-hater, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said he was reading out lines from a poem which presents the pain of the labourer class, but those who wanted to spread misinformation were free to do so.

The @BJP4Maharashtra on Wednesday tweeted a short video of Pawar's speech in Satara and claimed that "atheist Sharad Pawar always hated Hindu religion" and he would not have achieved his political success without insulting Hindu gods and goddesses and indulging in casteism. Some social media users pointed out that Pawar was quoting a poem by Jawahar Rathod which deals with the issue of casteism.

Speaking to reporters at Purandar in Pune on Thursday, Pawar explained that he was reading lines from Rathod's poem Patharvat (stone-cutter).

In the poem, the stone-cutter says he made the idols of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh using his chisel and these idols were installed in the temple, but the stone-cutters themselves were not allowed to step inside the temple because they are from a lower caste.

"The stonecutter questions whether Brahma is the creator of the world or we (those who make his idols) are his father," the NCP chief said, reading out the poem again.

"The poet voices the pain of the labourers who rue that they sculpted idols from the rock but they are stopped from entering the temple. The poem depicts pain, but if some people want to spread misinformation, they are free to do so," the NCP chief said, without naming the BJP.

"When people will look for where it is written, they will find this book," he added. -- PTI

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