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Lucknow police booked 10 people for promoting feud after members of a team called Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha allegedly burned photocopies of Ramcharitmanas pages in the Vrindavan area of the Uttar Pradesh capital on Sunday.
Whole controversy
The protest was held in the Vrindavan Yojana sector ostensibly in solidarity with Maurya, who on January 22 had said in a statement that the Hindu epic contained passages that discriminated against women and shudras.
"As it was reported in a section of the media that we had burned copies of Ramcharitmanas, it is incorrect to say that. We took out the photocopies of Ramcharitmanas's objectionable comments, which were against 'shudras' and women, and burned the photocopies page in a symbolic protest," Devendra Pratap Yadav, a state official at Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha, told PTI.
"Swami Prasad Maurya has already demanded that the objectionable comments mentioned in the Ramcharitmanas should be removed or banned. The government did not take any step in this regard. We have extended support to Swami Prasad Maurya on this, and the Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha stands with Swami Prasad Maurya," he said.
Maurya, however, looks defiant and has said: "I will continue to oppose conspiracies to insult tribals, Dalits, retrogrades and women in the name of religion. Just as an elephant is unfazed by barking dogs and does not change their way, I will not change my stance towards the dignity of those (tribals, dalits, backwards and women)".
An FIR against Maurya was filed last Tuesday at Lucknow Hazratganj Police Station under sections 295A, 298, 504, 505(2) and 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Police said the FIR was registered in a complaint filed by leader Satnam Singh Lavi.
Mayawati lashed out at BJP
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP Chairman Mayawati has now reacted to the recent controversy over 'Ramcharitmanas' and stated that it is aimed at benefiting the ruling BJP and the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav.
She also ridiculed the Samajwadi Party for not taking any action against the party's leader, Swami Prasad Maurya, who had recently made objectionable comments about the epic poem 'Ramcharitmanas' written by the great sage Goswami Tulsidas.
In a series of tweets, Mayawati said the BJP's plans to stir up new controversy for political gain are well known, but the Samajwadi Party (SP) is also doing the same.
"The BJP's political identity of creating new controversies for narrow political and electoral interests, spreading ethnic and religious hatred, creating hysteria and religious conversions, etc. is well known. But the same political color of the SP, under the guise of the ' Ramcharitmanas', it is sad and unfortunate," Mayawati said.
"Despite the controversy over the SP leader's remarks against the 'Ramcharitmanas' and then the BJP's reactions to it, the silence of the SP leadership has made it clear that there is a collusion between the two parties so that the upcoming elections can be polarised on Hindu-Muslim hysteria instead of burning public issues," Mayawati said.
The BSP chief said both parties had "communalized" the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election and warned against such hateful politics.
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