Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya’s controversial statement calling Hinduism not a religion but “dhokha” (deception) is an attempt to remain in the limelight, said some political analysts News18 spoke to, while a few termed it well-planned strategy to expand his support base. However, Maurya’s statement has stirred up a tumult in the state’s political circles.
“Swami Prasad Maurya who once used to enjoy considerable clout within his community as well as extremely backward caste communities while being in the Bahujan Samaj Party is looking for lost ground. The Bharatiya Janata Party had given him opportunities but due to his overconfidence, he deserted it and joined the Samajwadi Party and since then he has been demonising Hindu Gods and Goddesses to remain in the limelight,” said Shashikant Pandey, a political analyst and head of the political science department at Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow.
On Monday, Maurya, while speaking at the National Buddhist and Bahujan Rights Conference in New Delhi, said that in 1995 the Supreme Court in an order stated that “Hindu is not a religion but a way of life”. It is a blend of more than 200 religions. “Even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their statements have also said that Hindu is not a religion but a way of life,” he said.
Several BJP leaders attacked Maurya for his comments. The party’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya said, “After DMK’s Udhayanidhi Stalin vowed to annihilate Sanatana Dharma, it is now SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who spews venom on Hinduism. Why are I.N.D.I Alliance leaders targeting the Hindus? Why haven’t Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi condemned these hate speeches, so far?”
Pandey said it is difficult to predict the exact repercussions of Maurya’s remarks but in the present scenario, it may not benefit the SP. “This may be the reason that now he is being criticised by his own party leaders, although the silence by the SP supremo is creating confusion among his followers as to whether to support him or condemn him. But the BJP would definitely try to capitalise on it once Lok Sabha election 2024 is round the corner,” he added.
Prof Kaushal Kishore Mishra, former dean faculty of social sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), said that Swami Prasad Maurya aims to win the support of the Dalit community and Muslims. His statements are part of a well-planned political strategy to expand his support base across UP, Mishra added.
“It is an open secret that a mass base of supporters is a must for staying relevant in politics and everyone knows it well,” said Mishra, who has taught political science at BHU for over three and a half decades.
On Maurya’s statement, Samajwadi Party’s national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav advised SP leaders to avoid commenting on religions and castes. The SP MP from Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav, called Maurya’s statement his personal opinion and not the party’s ideology.
Maurya also hit the headlines in January, when he said that objectionable language was used against Dalits and Adivasis in Ramcharitmanas written by Tulsidas. “Religion is meant for the welfare of humanity and for strengthening it. If there is any insult to a section of society due to certain lines in the Ramcharitamanas on the basis of ‘jaati’, ‘varn’, and ‘varg’, then it is certainly not ‘dharma’, it is ‘adharma’. There are certain lines in which names of castes such as ‘teli’ and ‘kumhaar’ are mentioned,” Maurya had stated.
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