'What if same happened with other religion?' UP CM slams SP over Ramcharitmanas row

"What would have happened if the same thing would have happened with some other religion? Does it mean whoever wants to insult Hindus, can do it?" Yogi questioned the opposition party.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday took on Samajwadi Party over the Ramcharitmanas row, saying the party "insulted" entire Hindus by manufacturing controversy during the Global Investors Summit.

During his Address in the ongoing Budget Session, he said, "The moment Global Investors Summit was about to begin, the Samajwadi Party started the Ramcharitmanas row about Tulsi Das ji. Some people tried to tear Ramcharitmanas. What would have happened if the same thing would have happened with some other religion? Does it mean whoever wants to insult Hindus, can do it? You want to insult the entire (Hindu) community,"

Yogi read lines from Ramcharitmanas and explained the meaning of the words to the assembly. "Shudra means labour class. Ambedkar ji has also said not to call Dalit community shudra. Your behaviour towards Ambedkar is well known to the world. The names of the organisations under his name were changed. Nari means women. Are you not insulting the Hindus living in India and the world by burning the Ramcharitmanas?" he questioned.

His remarks come after Samajwadi Party leader Swamy Prasad Maurya triggered a controversy by demanding the deletion of "insulting comments and sarcasm" targeted at particular castes and sects in Ramcharitmanas, a poem based on the epic Ramayana.

According to Maurya, some lines in the poem hurt the sentiments of the Dalit community. On January 30, Maurya has also taken a jibe at Mahant Raju Das by stating that he could have just cursed him instead of spending Rs 21 lakh to get him killed.

He also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding an amendment and ban on parts of the epic which he claimed are disrespectful to women and Dalits. "For revising/banning some of the objectionable parts of some couplets of Ramcharitmanas in which all women, tribals, Dalits and backward people have to be insulted on a daily basis at the social, and religious level and to give respect to the victim class, a letter has been sent to President and Prime Minister," Maurya had tweeted in Hindi.

After he triggered the controversy, the Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha went one step ahead and organised a protest in the Vrindavan scheme sector in Lucknow apparently in solidarity with Maurya. They burnt copies of Ramcharitmanas.

The FIR was filed against 10 people under IPC sections 142 (unlawful assembly), 143, 153A (wanton vilification or attacks upon the religion, race, place of birth, residence etc), 295 (injuring on defiling place of worship), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intention to wound religious feelings) among others.

Ramcharitmanas penned by Tulsidas in the 16th century is one of the most popular and influential works in the Hindi language that tells the story of Lord Rama, seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.