Published Jan 24, 2023 | 10:36 AM ⚊ Updated Jan 24, 2023 | 10:36 AM
Noted writer and rationalist, Prof KS Bhagawan, stoked controversy with remarks against Lord Rama. (Supplied)
An FIR has been registered against noted writer Professor KS Bhagawan for making “inflammatory remarks” about Rama and Sita at an event in Mandya recently.
The FIR came after members of Hindu outfits, mainly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), filed a complaint against Bhagawan at Srirangapatna Police Station on Monday, 23 January.
“On a complaint, an FIR has been registered on the charges of hurting religious sentiments. The case will be transferred to Mysuru’s KR Pete Police Station on Tuesday,” an officer attached to the police station told South First.
“Bhagawan made derogatory remarks about Lord Rama and Sita during an event. The members of VHP and Bajarang Dal will teach him a lesson… We know how to shut his mouth,” said Santoshkumar N, a resident of Srirangapatna, who filed the complaint against Bhagawan.
“The police has to take stringent action against him. We are not ready to listen to any excuses or reasons. We demand his arrest.”
Many people had tweeted with the hashtag #Arrest_Bhagawan after his remarks.
‘Shriram was alcoholic, how to consider him an ideal’ ? : Karnataka writer K S Bhagwan’s anti-Hindu statement !
Will K S Bhagwan ever dare to ask such questions about the religious figures of other religions ?https://t.co/RuakqVDmbh #Arrest_KSBhagwan pic.twitter.com/noXn2l4no2
— Sanatan Prabhat (@SanatanPrabhat) January 23, 2023
On 20 January, writer and rationalist Bhagawan, a resident of Mysuru city, stoked controversy by making statements on the character of Lord Rama at an event in Mandya.
“Ram would sit with Sita in the afternoon and spend the day drinking wine. He sent his wife into the forest and did not bother about her. He chopped off the head of Shambuka, a shudra, who was sitting in penance under a tree. How can he be ideal?” Bhagawan reportedly asked.
“There is a talk about building a Rama Rajya. If one reads the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki’s Ramayana, it will become evident that Rama was not ideal. He did not rule for 11,000 years, but merely for 11 years,” Bhagawan said.
Bhagwan, who is currently out on bail, has previously made remarks about Lord Rama that had not gone down well with right-wing Hindu outfits. His earlier comments had also sparked outrage in the old-Mysore region in 2019.
In another incident, Bhagawan, Professor Aravind Malagatti, and Professor Mahesh Chandra Guru were booked for saying at a seminar held in February 2015 that the Bhagavad Gita should be burnt. A complaint was registered against the trio in Jayalakshmipuram Police Station. They were later granted bail.
Insisting that he has not made any “hypothetical” statements, Bhagawan told South First: “I did not express my opinion at the event. In the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki’s Ramayana, it has been clearly mentioned that Rama would sit with his wife Sita and drink wine. I have also mentioned this in my book Rama Mandira Yeke Beda?”
“I am ready to face the legal consequences. The right-wing activists should have filed a complaint against Valmiki instead of me. If Hindu outfits are not happy with this, they have to oppose Valmiki’s Ramayana. I am not making statements on my own. Whatever I said is in the original Ramayana,” Bhagawan said.
“I abide by the Constitution in all my works. Of the fundamental duties, it has been said that ‘it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop scientific temper’, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. I have not violated any laws,” reiterated Bhagawan.
“The original Valimiki Ramayana is in Sanskrit. It has been translated into many languages, including Kannada. The problem is many people don’t read and understand Sanskrit.”
“If one reads and understands the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki’s Ramayana, then people will realise the truth about Rama,” Bhagawan told South First.
South First contacted some scholars and seers associated prominent ashramas of Karnataka for their take on the statements made by Bhagawan.
Research Scholar and historian Krishna Kolhar Kulkarni told South First: “It is after reading the Ramayana that many people in India consider him as a God. Ramayana and Mahabharata are deeply-rooted in millions of people. It is wrong of him (Bhagawan) to make such inflammatory statements.”
“I have studied Ramayana multiple times but have never come across this (him drinking wine). Bhagawan should stop spreading canards against the Ramayana,” he said.
“Rama was Kshatriya. In those days, the kings, mainly Kshatriyas, used to drink alcohol and consume meat. It was common in royal families,” Kulkarni added.
“I have read many versions of Ramayana, including the original, but no such things are mentioned. We can see in Mahabharat that the kings used to consume alcohol. It was common among the Kshatriya kings,” a seer associated with a prominent ashram told South First.
