Won't bear insult to poor: Bihar education minister Chandrashekhar

The Lalu Prasad-led RJD seems desperate to turn the "insult" of oppressed castes into a central poll issue in a bid to counter the BJP's Hindutva agenda in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

This was revealed when Education Minister Chandrashekhar, speaking at a party organized event to mark former chief minister Karpoori Tagore's death anniversary on Friday, described himself as a "descendant" of Ekalavya, the legendary Mahabharata character who offered his right thumb as 'gurudakshina', but claims that it won't happen again.

"We are descendants of Eklavya, but we should not sacrifice ourselves but take thumbs from others," the minister said in the presence of top party leaders like MP CM Tejashwi Yadav and state president Jagadanand Singh. He said that people who were mentioned as "shudras" in religious books have become "literate" and are now well aware of their rights. He said the party had won the support of the backward and Dalits in the name of Hindutva but had never given them "respect". The minister said he would speak more about discrimination against such castes in religious books.

Last month, he objected to some verses in the Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas, claiming that the Hindu religious books incite hatred in the society. "Education Minister Chandrashekhar's continuous statements on casteism are part of RJD's agenda to increase votes. But that will not work now," said BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand. Anand accused the RJD of trying to create caste conflicts in society for political gains and warned it against hurting Hindu sentiments.

RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan, however, said the party was only trying to bring socially backward castes into the mainstream. "Dalits and backward people form a large part of the country's population, yet they have remained backward," he said.