Picture : Twitter/ ANI
The Congress party in a damage control mode has said the remarks made by senior leader and former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil on the Bhagavad Gita were unacceptable and asserted the scripture was a key foundational pillar of Indian civilisation.
Patil has claimed the concept of jihad was not just in Islam but also in the Bhagavad Gita and in Christianity. The BJP hit out at the Congress over Patil’s remarks and accused it of playing vote bank politics.
“My senior colleague Shivraj Patil reportedly made some comments on Bhagavad Gita that’s unacceptable. Subsequently, he clarified. The Congress’s stand is clear. Bhagavad Gita is a key foundational pillar of Indian civilisation,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter.
My senior colleague Shivraj Patil reportedly made some comments on Bhagavad Gita that’s unacceptable. Subsequently, he clarified. @INCIndia’s stand is clear. Bhagavad Gita is a key foundational pillar of Indian civilisation. Here’s an excerpt from Nehru’s Discovery of India(p110) pic.twitter.com/rarJub7xTy
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 21, 2022
Speaking at the launch of Congress veteran and former Union minister Mohsina Kidwai’s biography, the former Lok Sabha Speaker and Union minister Patil stated that it is said there is a lot of discussion of jihad in the religion of Islam.
The concept comes to the fore when despite having the right intentions and doing the right thing, nobody understands or reciprocates, then it is said one can use force, he said.
“It is not just in Quran, but in Mahabharata also, the part in Gita, Shri Krishna also talks of jihad to Arjun and this thing is not just in Quran or Gita but also in Christianity,” he claimed in his remarks in Hindi.
#WATCH | Greater Noida, UP: Former Home Minister Shivraj Patil, attempts to clarify his remarks saying Krishna taught lessons of Jihad to Arjun pic.twitter.com/RP2aRUcAkv
— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2022
“If after explaining everything, people are not understanding, they are coming with weapons then you cannot run, you cannot call that jihad and you cannot call it wrong, this is what must be understood, there should not be this concept of making people understand with weapons in hand,” the 87-year-old leader said.
