Bengaluru, Sep 6 (IANS): Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Wednesday locked horns with BJP national General Secretary B.L. Santhosh over Udhayanidhi Stalin's Sanatana Dharma remarks row.
Kharge questioned Santosh, “Your ideology opposed Guru Narayan, Basavanna, Babasaheb and continues to do so. No surprises at all. Prove us wrong and let us know that RSS has changed and believes in an equal society. Let me know, when will the RSS have a Dalit or a woman as a Sarsanghchalak?”
B.L. Santhosh replying to earlier comments of Kharge stated on Wednesday that, “When talking about facts you term it as WhatsApp university of which Congis are Vice Chancellors. It was evident the other day during Chandrayaan-3 launch. When short of facts this is your ‘comfortable’ pitch.
Earlier, Minister Priyank raised caste division issue while responding to the post by Santhosh which claimed that the "head can’t be chopped if there is an infection in the stomach" made in connection with eradication of Sanatana Dharma remark.
Continuing the argument, Santhosh, stated addressing Priyank Kharge that, “You are engaging in discussion. Good. Reform and exploitation are two ways of looking at the problem. From Buddha through Anna Basavanna to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar tried to REFORM society. They were successful in it.”
Santhosh stated, “Just some doubts Priyank Sir.. Why Congress didn’t allow Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to get elected if they respected him so much? Did you know it was Dattotpant Thengadi, a Pracharak who assisted Dr. B.R. Ambedkar?”
Answering to this, Priyank Kharge maintained, "always happy to clear your doubts, sir. If you have read Babasaheb’s writings enough you will not be asking naive questions like these and as usual running away from the real subject and trying to bat on a “comfortable” pitch will not help you as well.
“Let me share some historical facts (you will not find these in your WhatsApp University archives.) Babasaheb and Congress had many debates and differences, he himself has written a book. Read it.
"When he stood from Bombay North Central constituency from the Scheduled Caste Federation party, the Hindu Mahasabha too fought the election against him.
"Later, Dr. Ambedkar lost his Assembly seat due to Bengal’s division, necessitating fresh elections for Constituent Assembly in West Bengal and when it became evident that Babasaheb could not remain in the Assembly, the Congress recognized his value and decided to work for him.
"June 30, 1947, Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to B.G. Kher, Prime Minister of Bombay requested him to have Dr. B.R. Ambedkar elected to the Assembly on a Congress ticket."
"Not only did your ideological gurus oppose Babasaheb but also ran coalition governments with the Muslim League in Bengal and Sind, the North West Frontier Province too earlier.
"Dattopant Thengadi and Babasaheb’s relationship is a figment of RSS’ imagination and from WhatsApp university, so let it be. Coming to Babasaheb’s conversion to Buddhism and calling his conversion a useless act.
"Do you know what Savarkar said after Babasaheb converted to Buddhism? He says, “When these Mahar ‘untouchable’ folk coming from Sanatan Hindu majority villages go back to their villages now after embracing Buddhism at Nagpur will they be considered as ‘touchables’ only because they have now embraced Buddhism? It is impossible.”
"Babasaheb adopted Buddhism because it was the “most scientific religion.”
He said, “In the hymns of the Rig Veda, we see man’s thoughts turned outwards, away from himself, to the world of the gods.”
“Buddhism, directed man’s search inwards to the potentiality hidden within himself..Whereas the Vedas are full of “prayer, praise and worship” of gods, Buddhism aims at training the mind to make it act righteously,” Priyank stated in his post.