Yogi thrashes Samajwadi Party over Ramcharitmanas row

BY A STAFF REPORTER: Responding to the Ramcharitmanas controversy in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday attacked the Samajwadi Party, saying "what would have happened if scriptures of other religions and faiths were insulted?", alleging that the party was trying to "insult" the Hindu community in India and across the world and created a controversy at the Global Investors Summit that concluded in Lucknow earlier this month. "As soon as the Global Investors' Summit started, the Samajwadi Party started the Ramcharitmanas debate on Tulsi Dasji. Some people tried to tear down Ramcharitmanas. What if the same thing happened to any other religion? Does this mean that those who want to insult Hindus can do so? You want to insult the entire Hindu community. The chief minister read out the lines of Hindu scriptures and explained the meaning of the words. "Shudra means the working class. Ambedkarji told the Dalit community not to call it Shudra. Your attitude towards Ambedkar is well known to the whole world. The names of the institutions named after him were changed. Woman means woman. Are you not insulting the Hindus living in India and the world by burning ramcharitmanas?"