SP seeks to avoid BJP 'trap', party leaders told not to comment on religious issues

The party's instructions to the leaders came after controversy erupted over senior SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya's remarks over the Hindu epic 'Ram Charit Manas'

Apparently seeking to avoid what it considers a 'trap' aimed at polarisation ahead of next year's general elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has asked its leaders to refrain from commenting on religious issues.

According to the SP sources, letters, asking the party leaders not to get themselves involved in religious controversy, have been sent to all the district presidents, MPs and MLAs and other senior leaders of the party.

Read | Samajwadi Party asks its leaders to avoid debating communal issues on TV

The party's instructions to the leaders came after a huge controversy erupted over senior SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya's remarks over the Hindu epic 'Ram Charit Manas'. Maurya had dubbed the epic 'anti-dalit' and demanded that the couplets in the epic containing 'anti-dalit' remarks be either withdrawn or the book be banned. Maurya's remarks had triggered a massive backlash from the seers, one of whom even announced a cash reward for whosoever chopped the PS leader's tongue.

The banners and posters containing slogans like 'garva se kaho hum shudra hain' (say with pride that we are shudra), which had come up outside the party office here had also been removed. The posters had been put up by one 'Shudra Uttam Prakash Singh Patel, who claimed to be the national general secretary of All India Khastriya Kurmi Mahasabha.

''The controversy over Ram Charit Manas is nothing but a trap by the BJP aimed at polarising the electorate at a time when the next Lok Sabha elections are merely a year away...its BJP's electoral strategy and we must not let ourselves be trapped,'' said a senior SP leader here while speaking to DH. ''We are samajwadis (socialists)....we respect every religion,'' he added.

Sources said that SP president Akhilesh Yadav had also asked the party leaders to focus on the demand for caste census rather than be embroiled in religious controversies. The SP leader said that the party was planning to launch an agitation throughout the state to press the demand for the caste census.

UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, however, said that the demand for caste census by the SP was nothing but an 'eyewash'. ''Akhilesh did nothing in this regard when he was in power....he is now raking up this issue to gain electoral mileage but he will not succeed,'' the Dy CM said on Sunday.