Reciting 'Ram Ram' will ruin you: UP Minister tells students

Lucknow, June 5: An Uttar Pradesh Minister sparked controversy by telling students that if they recite the name of Ram, it will ruin them.

While distributing free laptops to meritorious students of ICSE, CBSE and UP Board in Lucknow, UP Minister of State for Secondary Education Vijay Bahadur Pal said so.

"Suno meri baat, agar tum chillaye baar baar Ram naam, to ho jayega kaam tamam (If you recite the name of Ram again and again, it is going to ruin you)," Pal was quoted as saying in an Indian Express report.

As per the report, "He then went on to tell the students that if they are caught in "orthodox talks", they would be left wandering. Without taking any name, Pal said those speaking about "mann ki baat" should instead speak from the brain.

The minister said so in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, five other ministers and officials of the education department."

Later, Pal was quoted as saying, "I respect Ram, who had gone on vanvas and had seen many hardships. All I wanted was to caution students against those who want to make them useless by engaging them in orthodox talks. I just used name of Ram as an example."

OneIndia News