Nitish Kumar as Ram, PM Modi Ravana: Posters outside Patna RJD office sparks row

mangaloretoday.com

Patna, Jan 14, 2023: Posters showing victory of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls were seen outside RJD leader Rabri Devi’s residence and state office in Patna.

 

But what caught everyone’s attention was how two Hindu mythologies, Ramayana and Mahabharata, were invoked to describe the BJP’s loss and the victory of the Grand Alliance in the 2024 polls. A close look at the poster shows that Nitish Kumar (leader of Mahagathbandhan) has been referred to as Lord Ram/Krishna and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Raavan/Kansa.

Divided into rows, the first two halves of the poster describe how Lord Ram defeated Ravana in Ramayana and Lord Krishna defeated Kansa in Mahabharata. The last portion of the poster shows the Grand Alliance, apparently led by Nitish Kumar, defeating PM Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The poster also has Mahagathbandhan Zindabad slogans written on it with a picture of Poonam Rai, state General Secretary of Chhapra.

"Nitish Kumar is new among all the opposition leaders, be it Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in power till 2034. No one can defeat him,"Nawal Kishore Yadav, BJP spokesperson told news agency ANI.

"We don’t know who has put up these posters. These have not been authorised by our party RJD. Still, the preparation to oust BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls has started from Bihar and all the opposition parties have united against the BJP. The fight is against the party which is against the poor, youth and farmers. Nitish Kumar took charge in Bihar and can be the face of an united opposition. Every Bihari wants this, "RJD national spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari said.

A few days back, controversy swirled over Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar Yadav’s remarks on the "Ramcharitmanas". He landed in trouble after he said that Ramcharitmanas, a Hindu religious book, spreads hatred in society. Books like Ramcharitmanas, Manusmriti and MS Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts created a social divide, the minister said.

The ruling JD-U on Thursday also criticised his statement and asked him to withdraw them.

Courtesy: India Today