Samajwadi Party Leader’s Defense of “Anti-Hindu” Remark: “PM Modi Also..”

New Delhi: With his divisive statements against Hinduism, Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya has ignited a major controversy.
“Hindu dharma ek dhokha hai (Hindu religion is a kind of deception),” said Swami Prasad Maurya, citing statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chairman Mohan Bhagwat that Hinduism is just “a way of life” rather than a religion.

“Even Mohan Bhagwat has said, twice, that Hinduism is a way of life rather than a religion. Furthermore, Hinduism is not a religion, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These folks don’t harm people’s feelings when they say things like that, but when Swami Prasad Maurya says anything, it creates disturbance,” he said.

In addition, Mr. Maurya used a Supreme Court decision as support for his statements. “In 1955, the Supreme Court said in its order that Hindu is not a religion but a way of life,” said Mr. Maurya.

Swami Prasad Maurya, who left the BJP to join the Samajwadi Party in advance of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022, has a history of making anti-Hindu statements.

In August, he posted a video claiming that “Hinduism is just a hoax” on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Brahminism has extremely deep roots, and it is also the cause of all the differences. He could be heard stating in the film, “Hinduism is merely a fiction; there is no such thing as a Hindu religion.

In January of this year, the head of the Samajwadi Party said that several lines in the Ramcharitmanas encouraged social prejudice. “If there is any insult to a section of society due to certain lines in the Ramcharitmanas on the basis of ‘jaati’, ‘varn’ and ‘varg’, then it is certainly not ‘dharma’, it is ‘adharma’,” he had said.

In addition, Swami Prasad Maurya made contentious statements disparaging Goddess Lakshmi. “Every child born anywhere in the world has two hands, two legs, two ears, and two eyes and if a child with eight hands, and ten hands has not been born till now, how can Goddess Lakshmi be born with four hands,” he had said.

But his party has disassociated itself from his comments once again. “By expressing such opinions, these individuals are harming themselves,” Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya said.

Chief of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, has previously said that his party does not participate in religious politics. “The Samajwadi Party has a definite stance on religion. It is not something that should be discussed,” he had said.