If Yechury calls Ramayana, Mahabharata Hindu violence, he should remove Sitaram from his name: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut Saturday advised Sitaram Yechury to drop his first name after the CPI(M) general secretary said Hindu epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana were replete with "violence".

Raut also asked Yechury if he would term as "violence" the action of security forces while defending the country against Pakistan-backed terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

"If Sitaram Yechury calls Ramayana and Mahabharata Hindu violence, then he should remove Sitaram from his name," Raut added.

Raut said, "What do you mean by saying Hindus are violent? The Ramayana and Mahabharata conveyed a central message -- victory of good over evil, truth over falsehood. Ram, Krishna and Arjuna are symbols of truth."

"If this is the meaning they interpret, then tomorrow they will say our soldiers fighting against Pakistan is 'violence'. When we defend ourselves against Pakistani acts of terrorism in Kashmir, is that violence?" he asked.

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"Sitaram Yechury's intentions are clear: it is to attack Hindus and make oneself a secular person," the Sena Rajya Sabha MP alleged. 

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury attacked the BJP for fragmenting the society for votes through its divisive policies, branding religious epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as specimens of Hindu violence. 

"Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur said that Hindus don't believe in violence. Many kings and principalities have fought battles in the country. Even the Ramayana and Mahabharata are also filled with instances of violence. Being a pracharak, you narrate the epics but still claim Hindus can't be violent? What is the logic behind saying there is a religion which engages in violence & we Hindus don't," he said.

Yechury also took on Narendra Modi for his claim that Hindus can never be violent, alleging that the Prime Minister erases Indian history replete with gruesome battles and wars. 

"It is a fallacy to say that Hindus cannot engage in violence," Yechury had said.

(With PTI inputs) 

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