Bhagavad Gita not fit to be 'National Book': Aravind Malagatti

Describing Bhagavad Gita as a partisan text, writer Aravind Malagatti criticised the Central government’s efforts to impose it as the ‘National Book’, here, on Sunday.

He was speaking at a workshop organised by various government employee associations at Rani Bahadur Auditorium. He said, only one section of the people attributed divinity to the work. “The text cannot be the national book. It does not qualify to be so,” he said.

He said, Gita depicted women and Dalit communities in poor light. Verses in the religious text lack clarity and could be justified in any manner as one pleases, he said.

Blaming it for the problems faced by the Indian society, he said, there were several good aspects in the religious text. However, the proportion of verses which supports inequality is more. The text which supports discrimination, based on caste and colour cannot be accepted as the national book, he said.

Rather than Gita, scriptures of Manteswamy and Malemahadeshwara Swamy are better qualified to be national books, as they stress on brotherhood and equality of populations, he said.

He said, the proposed Anti-Conversion Bill, if enacted, will allow some communities to continue discriminating and harassing weaker sections of the society. It will allow Vedic ideals to be forced upon the discriminated sections of the population and will threaten the existence of the country, he opined. If the government wants to allow conversion, it should also allow people to be re-converted to the faith of their choice. Such methods would ensure a healthy society. However, attempts of Right wing ideologues to impose religion, by campaigns such as Love Jihad and Ghar Wapsi, is an indication of their desperation, he said.

If BJP and RSS are interested in abolishing the caste system in the country, they should encourage inter-caste marriages. However, such attempts are not being made, he added.

Revenue Minister V Srinivas Prasad, writer K S Bhagwan and others were present.